Technology Over the Years

Woody Allen used to say that 80% of success is showing up. I’d add that the remaining 20% is staying there long enough.

I was first introduced to Information Technology when I was in high school, back when the Apollo program was going on and the Foundations were singing “Build Me Up Buttercup”.

I am a member of a very small group of people around town who studied “Computer Science” 40 years ago and stuck with it ever since. I enjoy being at industry roundtables when we go around the room introducing ourselves and stating how long we’ve been in the business. I’m often the granddaddy of them all.

So naturally, over the years I’ve come to see all kinds of technology come and go and I thought this month I’d summarize the ones I think were truly revolutionary.

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SharePoint Portal Makes For Enterprise-Wide Collaboration

What a way to learn. I was with my colleagues Dave and Geoff, a couple of people from Microsoft, and a dozen or so customers at Glen Arbor Golf Course. We called it the Nicom IT Solutions/Microsoft “Golfinar”, a combination golf game and seminar.

Before we hit the links, we had a hands-on demonstration of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, MOSS, the fastest-selling server software in Microsoft history. If you haven’t heard of it, chances are you will soon. Actually SharePoint has been out since 1999, but it is with the latest release along with Microsoft Office 2007 that it has really taken off. Some of our employees have been working with it since 1999, but they tell me it is this release that has reached the maturity required for large-scale enterprise-wide adoption.

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Google Apps Offers Free Business Collaboration Software

Practically anyone over the age of eight knows what Google is. My older brother calls it “Googles” and George Bush calls it “The Google”. It’s a noun and a verb in both official languages (“I googled it”/”Je l’ai googlé”). The fact is it’s very well known indeed.

When you think of Google you probably think of the Internet search engine but Google, the company, is much more than that. In fact it’s a multi-billion dollar corporation that offers much more than just a search capability. If you go to www.google.com and click on “More”, you’ll see what I mean.

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