May 06
16
Network Is The Platform
Reading John Batelle's blog I came across a speech by Tim O'Reilly given at US Berkeley about Web 2.0. – It is really worth reading in its entirety…. but here is a quote:
computing with a story about Thomas Watson Jr., the head of IBM
during the birth of the mainframe. Watson famously remarked that
he saw no need for more than 5 computers worldwide. Clay noted,
“We now know that Thomas Watson was wrong.” We all laughed as we
thought of the hundreds of millions of personal computers sold
today. But then Clay socked us with the punch line: “He overstated
the number by four.”
Following on from the address given by John Chambers at Interop, it resonates loud and clear. It is all about the Internet and the Network as the platform. A giant melting pot of ideas, thoughts and actions from every connected individual on the planet. With some of the information golden and some of it dross, just like what it happening in most people's brains on the planet every day….
And hopefully through this wildly expanded brain power that we are all tapped into we will find a way through the almost impossible challenges that face humanity today – those things that 'fatigue' us with their magnitude: Global Warming, Bird Flu, Energy, Water Shortages….. all of which appear to be out of our control.