Versions and variations

The concept of Web 2.0 is probably nothing more than a move to create a new bubble. Carlota Perez tells us that these phenomena are not only nothing new, but positive. At least for those interested in raising seed capital, the Harvard researcher’s article may be a good guide.

Either way, there are things changing on the web, and in that sense we can indeed talk about a web 2.0. At least the name has the kind of designation we’ve gotten users used to, and that the business majors turned into a marketing tool.

Software evolves

The idea that software is something static that gets packaged and sold is fundamentally wrong. Software is evolutionary by nature.

The reason is simple: systems process data and generate new data, but that new data needs to be processed again, in an endless cycle.

“First I want to keep track of my product stock, then I want to sell, I want to see how sales went, who the best salesperson was, which product has the highest turnover, what my inventory costs are, how the return on investment is doing, we need to generate electronic invoices, which have to be sent by email, customers want to place purchase orders through my website, I’d like to know what our customers think so I add a forum, I want to improve my corporate image and communicate with my customers, I put up a blog so my customers know what we’re up to, as our business is evolving, the product development area has decided to install a wiki so potential customers can suggest new features, the processes have been automated by an internal workflow, and the internal wiki needs a search engine to manage the company’s knowledge, the support people require a CRM system and since sales have gone up we need to bring in a new ERP system to manage production, oh and of course the board wants access to a management control system, with trends, charts, statistics, etc, etc, etc.”

If anyone thinks buying a management package for their company is enough, they’re wrong. IT departments are as necessary as before, or more.

Information generates more information.

Of the 3 laws of thermodynamics, information only seems to follow the second: the more information, the more entropy. But there seems to be no limit to information, and information is created and transformed, but it seems it is never destroyed.

It’s true that there are physical limits to information, every bit has to be stored somewhere, but the limits seem unreachable by man, probably for what remains of the life of the universe.

Because in spite of everything, information cannot be fully assimilated by human beings. They will need more and better systems to condense and manage those immeasurable amounts of data.

The need for comprehension

One of the problems with this “information overdose” is that many people are unable to discriminate the value of information.

What’s worse, nobody discriminates on the truth value of the information. We had a recent example with the famous case of the pregnant man.

Can people be fooled?

People without the ability to reason, sure. It’s not a matter of more or less knowledge, it’s a matter of thinking, and of thinking about what we do.