Kingsley Idehen wrote:
I mean:
it's a bad thing
to have apps as data silo vectors.
Yes. But in my world, many apps are intended to be the master data manager for some part of the
enterprise. PLM systems want to be THE integrating
software for engineering, but they are
mostly just linked repositories. But at least someone realized that they
need to be linked to all the CAx systems used
in engineering, and an effort has been made to
make that as painless as possible. 15 years
ago, all those CAx systems were separate
systems, and documentation management and
workflow management and
configuration and version
management (PLM functions) were also
separate systems. In a
similar way ERP systems gathered up
Finance, Procurement,
HR, etc. So now
what we have are big silos. I think there will
always be silos in some form.
But the mere fact
that the
enterprise has a handful of
big silos, rather than 25
smaller ones,
makes the problem
more tractable.
The
problem with
25 linked silos
is transaction
and
versioning
coordination.
> It's so bad that individuals and enterprises are
> (today) purchasing computing devices en masse for
which (as owners) they
> don't even posses 'root' privileges.
I think this means that corporations acquire and install
lots of computers for workers who lack the privileges to do
system administration. ...
I am referring to the fact that organizations and people are acquiring iOS5 tablets
and phones for which they don't have 'root' access.
OH!
OK. I agree that that can be considered a problem. But it is
a collision of business models. The vendor wants to sell you a service, not a product. The product is
simply a part of the service, and the supplier can modify the product
to improve the service without physical
contact with the widely
dispersed customers. The
customer thinks he has a product,
and if the
product can do more or different things
from what the supplier provides,
why can't the customer control
the product and make those decisions? Because it isn't
what he contracted
for. This is mostly an
education issue -- if you
want to buy and control
a product and
negotiate
for certain
services, that is
a
different business
model. And if
ALL the
service
providers
don't want to
offer that
option, the
customer has
no choice. To
break that deadlock,
you
need a new
technology that
offers an
opportunity
for startups
who can offer
a product/service
relationship
the customer
prefers.
The programmers are a handful of elves in the woods who
have little influence on any decisions about corporate
computing.
Not so
since the advent of the Open Source era. An unintended consequence, so to speak.
I think you mistake
the widespread use of open source software in research
institutions and software houses for use of open source
software in industry. If industry is using open
source software, it is because the contractor they hired
installed it.
They just get the job of installing the chosen products
and making nice screen views for upper management.
Pre Web, maybe, In my experience these days -- it's all
about code first and programming language oriented religious wars.
Again among the programmers in research institutions and software houses. Most of the population of the Webby
exploders is far removed from real
applications. We are only finally beginning to see major software houses and
consulting firms using Web
technologies in delivered
"solutions", and their
participation in the exploders is primarily
information gathering.
As Steve Fenves, a former Mechanical Engineering chair
at CMU, observed, "we are finally teaching engineers how to
use computers instead of how to program
computers".
I wish
that was my experience. That's exactly how it should be, but not what
I come across in my travels, unfortunately
.
Well, Steve did say "finally". Since that was in 2008 or so, I
think he probably meant "finally beginning to teach..."
> What happened to systems analysts, database
designers, ontologists etc?
They are well paid consultants or "marketing support"
staff for software houses. ...
That's how it
should be, but the folks you describe
aren't part of the major dialogs
that occur on the Web, certainly not in the
quarters that I frequent.
I stand by what I said above. The folks I describe are the ones in
my circles. On most Webby exploders, they are lurkers. In some
cases, they are forbidden by company rule to contribute.
> I believe applications are like fish and data like
wine. The world (in the
> majority) still doesn't understand what data
actually is, let alone the
> fundamental implications of such dangerous ignorance
:-(
I agree 100%. But that has been so for 50 years.
Yes, but we have
the eexponential effects
kicking in these days. Thus, really bad stuff
ends up affect a lot of people etc..
Well, yes, but certain major vendors and bad but appealing ideas
have set the industry back 10 years or so at least twice since 1980,
and that has negatively affected the industry from the outset of the
Web. Then again the original design of typewriter keyboards 100
years ago negatively affects my keyboard productivity even now...
-Ed
--
Edward J. Barkmeyer Email: edbark@xxxxxxxx
National Institute of Standards & Technology
Systems Integration Division, Engineering Laboratory
100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8263 Tel: +1 301-975-3528
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8263 Cel: +1 240-672-5800
"The opinions expressed above do not reflect consensus of NIST,
and have not been reviewed by any Government authority."
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