Lundberg Media

A Brief and Colorful History of Technology in Business

April 16, 2009 at 10:27 am Leave a comment

I was asked to give a couple of talks this spring giving my perspective on the current state of technology in business. I always think the present is better understood by looking at the past, so I put together a presentation looking at a) how things have developed over the past 20 or so years (not coincidentally, the span of time I was involved with CIO Magazine), and b) the challenges and opportunities I see businesses in general and CIOs in particular facing during this tumultuous time. I’ve posted a version of this talk on Slideshare, complete with an audio narration. Please check it out and let me know if your view lines up with mine or how you see things differently.

Here’s the presentation (or you can view it from the Slideshare site):

And here’s a link to the clip I reference at the beginning, of the comedian Louis CK on the Conan O’Brien show. The relevant segment is about 1/3 of the way in and it’s about a minute long, where he talks about cell phones and internet service on planes. This bit really defines the problem technologists face in making end users and business partners happy. The whole thing highlights an even more fundamental problem we all face in seeking happiness through external means. Very Zen….

update: unfortunately, NBC has taken down this clip, though there are still a couple of versions floating around on YouTube

Entry filed under: CIO, Economy, IT management, Social networking. Tags: business, CIO, digital natives, dotcom bubble, IT, recession, sarbanes-oxley, technology, y2k.