* Warning: this mail contains controversial material that may affect
the faint hearted. If you are of such disposition, please delete
now!*
The whole issue is, of course, not a debate of html vs edifact.
The issue is about the Internet and its various enabling
technologies. The Web, E-mail, FTP, NewsNet and Telnet.
Sound, video and 3D. Cheap and simple technology that is accessible
to the masses and not the monoply of the elite.
So, what is so special about the Internet and what makes it generate
such heat?
1. For the first time ever there is a technology that has mass
attraction. It is seductive. It is enabling. It allowa people like
me who have no technical knowledge whatsoever to create and contribute.
It is simple, cheap and delivers according to continually evolving
standards.
2. It threatens and challenges the old power bases and vested
interests. It takes away from them the monoply of knowledge and the
elitism and exclusivity that charachterise those power bases. Now
that is really scary for a lot of people whoi have built empires and
careers based solely on myths that only the High Priests know what is
good for us. Scary, what?
Someone recently likened the NHS IM&T establishment to a supertanker
that takes years to turn few degrees. I can't imagine that
establishment a bigger supertanker than the mighty Microsoft. Within
weeks of the launch of Windows 95, Microsoft realised that they made a
mistake and under-estimated the power of the Internet. They hand
picked over 2000 of the brightest Internet brains, from colleges and
labs, from industry and everywhere. A new job title was created: The
Internet Evangelists. Within months, Microsoft has turned its
supertanker 180 degrees and became the dominant force on the high seas.
I say that the pilot, capatain and crew of our own particualr
supertanker are no longer fit to steer this ship.
I say that they continue to feed its engines with coal on the pretence
that the Internet is today's fad and it will soon go away and that we
will all be back in the cosy and comffy salon of yesteryear where the
High Priests have all the power and none of the gorms!
I say that the current crew continue to argue that the ship only needs
more of the same old stuff and everything will be alright because we
can't just drop everything and look with fresh eyes and open minds at
something that is capturing the imagination of the whole world. No,
we will just carry on breeding Sir Humphreys like rabbits. It is safer
this way.
I say that the whole crew should go and be replaced with those who have
the vision, the foresight, the conviction and, above all, the
courage to steer this supertanker on the right course even though the
charts are not all there yet. Enough is enough.
Ahmad
An Internet evangelist and proud of it.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|