IT Doesn't Matter Review

These are a few brief thoughts on the paper by Nicholas G. Carr called IT Doesn't Matter. You can view the original paper here: IT doesn't matter(PDF)

Whilst I believe this piece has some good content, namely the authors views on the wastefulness of the IT industry in general, I also believe that the predictions for the future of the IT industry made by the author of this piece are largely based on speculation. The author makes comparisons between IT and other industry's such as rail, steam and reticulated electricity to outline what he perceives will happen to the IT industry in the future. From the authors perspective all industry follows the model of initial development and relative obscurity followed by an increase in popularity and then as the industry grows, skyrocketing capacity and falling prices lead to commoditization and the loss of any advantages economic or otherwise that this industry may offer.

Whilst this may be true for industries such as reticulated electricity and rail which initially offered huge economic advantages to initial embraces of the technology I believe that the IT industry has much further to go before its development plateaus and it becomes such a commodity that it can offer no real economic advantage to its users. With electricity once it was reticulated to homes and businesses that was it, there was no ware else to go, Sure while the infrastructure that generates and delivers electricity may have changed and evolved as the years progressed essentially it has changed little from 1888 when the people of Reefton, New Zealand where among the first in the country to be supplied with reticulated electricity.

Today these people still have electricity in the very same form that it was in all those years ago, Nothing much has really changed. However unlike the electricity industry the IT industry has changed immensely since its birth, Initially computers where huge devices that filled rooms, only the largest corporations could afford them and it took teams of scientists and engineers just to operate them. From these beginnings computing has evolved at an astronomical rate, Moving from the lab into peoples living rooms and as predicted by the author they are considered somewhat a commodity item today. However whilst computers may be considered a commodity item the development of computing has no way reached a plateau like electricity and rail, Sure nearly everyone may own a computer in one form or another but this does not mean development has slowed one bit, The development potential for the IT industry is as huge today as it was when the first computer was powered on and I don't think that this will change any time soon.