E-Business
Issue No. 4 - February/March 2002
Technology
by Bob Bishop
Basically, technology includes everything that’s been invented since you and I were born, so once upon a time even a simple nail was considered to be technology! And this makes an important point, which is that technology cannot be “disinvented.” Once it’s out there, it’s out there—whether it’s harnessed for good or for bad.
The pace of technological development continues to accelerate. If business is evolving at three times the speed of government and law, and e—business at three times the speed of normal business, then e—business is accelerating at nine times the speed of government! There are also more technologists working today than ever lived before, and just one example of the impact of this is that SGI shipped more computer power in 1999 than in all its previous 18 years combined.
Furthermore (and hardly surprisingly), technology has become the engine of globalisation. Whereas the Concorde and the TGV got us halfway there, satellite TV, GSM phones and now the Internet have made the “global village” a reality. E—commerce and 24x7 markets are both enabled by technology, and we are rapidly heading toward a borderless, boundaryless world.
But who is in charge? Who sets the rules? Who provides the governance? And who owns what? While many such questions have yet to be answered, what certainly isn’t in doubt is that technology will play an increasingly important role in our 21st—century life—sustaining it on the one hand, complicating it on the other; disturbing all our social paradigms, and driving us inevitably forward.
One planet, one network
Moore’s Law for semiconductors will last another 20 years, after which we’ll be building devices at the atomic level. Moore’s Law states that semiconductors deliver double the performance at half the price every two years. This means a fourfold improvement in price/performance every two years, a thousandfold improvement...
