Today’s IT Thought of the Day is simple.   What is it that drives the Information Industry to create new "standards" every time they want to do something new? Do we really need a new standard every day?

Today’s thought was inspired by two recent stories from Engadget concerning two examples from within only the narrow realm of display to computer interfaces.

The same situation is found everywhere in the Information Technology world.  Whether you are addressing programming, hardware, or software, we, as an industry, seem to actually enjoy complicating our own lives.   We create consumer confusion, technological complexity, requirements for new investment, and troubleshooting chaos by our own actions and then have to pay the price ourselves in dealing with it for our stakeholders.  The end user is not the one who makes this all work in the Enterprise — we are.

The real question is whether this constant tweaking of interfaces actually delivers more benefit than it does in the costs mentioned above.

I fully appreciate the need for progress.  I like the fact that our "hacker culture" make us the "special sauce" that brings agility, unexpected capabilities, and increase productivity.  I even welcome the cool new things that every new interface permits our industry to accomplish.

I just think that we all have a box in our closet full of cables that are no longer usable, cards that are no longer supported, software that is incompatible, and books that tell of "the next big programming language" and have to ask myself:  Does the benefit of supporting a new standard every time we turn around really deliver more than it costs?

What do you think?  Am I on track?  What were your favorite interfaces and standards of 2008?  Is it getting better or worse?  Please share.

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for May 18, 2009 ©Scott Coughlin .


Be Sociable, Share!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.