Harvard hosts a debate on whether or not IT Is done

by philg

Apropos the mournful postings below on the state of IT… On Wednesday May 19 Harvard at 12:30 Eastern Time is hosting a debate on the question “Does IT Matter?”  I plan to attend (via telephone).  Because it is the business school the debate is priced for those who are already rich and/or work for the rich.  And because it is the business school the focus of the debate is probably going to be “does IT matter to profit-seeking corporations?”  I might try to get a few words in edgewise about how IT might be more transformative for poor countries than for rich countries.  In the U.S. we have magnificent roads, stores everywhere, and seemingly 3 SUVs per citizen.  So being able to do a transaction electronically isn’t that much of a time-saver.  Someone in the Third World who has to ride a chicken bus over a terrible road for an entire day is going to appreciate being able to do a transaction from his local Internet cafe a lot more than someone who only saved a 10-minute ride in his Cadillac Escalade.

16 thoughts on “Harvard hosts a debate on whether or not IT Is done”

  1. Does IT matter? It does as nonprofit advocacy groups, share holders and the media start using it for distributed research. Remind the boys that we are not talking just talking about roads, electric grids and connectivity (which may have a saturation point) we are talking about computing and the ability to solve problems (no saturation point) and deliver key information at the point it is needed most (still not solved).

  2. What is truly amazing is the $$$ that people are willing to spend to listen to this seminar. Hope you get your money’s worth. After all, that’s a good chunk of a SUV monthly payment.

  4. Happy to see that when you’re not writing nonsense about things you don’t know anything about, like Spanish internal politics, you can come up with an interesting post. Keep the good work, talk about IT, and don’t waste time on talking on what you’re totally ignorant of.

  5. i think that the q is what kind of groups in the spain have some brain about what is going out there in the new terror war , is it
    the main problem ? well i do think so!

  6. Colman, before you accuse of lacking any backbone, as Phil would definitely do, you can read my opinion on 11-M here:

    http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/ion/2004/03/16#a667

    As for the new terror war, that’s what we want to get involved with. Fighting Islamic fundamentalism is what “the coalition of the willing” should be actually doing, instead of wasting men, precious time (almost two years so far), attention, and a ridiculous amount of resources on something that only works to fulfill some Neocons’s adolescent macho fantasies and to fill Chiney’s cronies’s pockets. I’d have voted against PP in any case, but just seeing the results of two years of criminal incompetence made me mad with rage. Same thing happened to all my friends and relatives too.

  8. The beautiful thing about places like Harvard Business is that they are so far “inside the box” that they can’t hope to find the next big thing, in IT or otherwise.

    The Shawn Fannings, the Richard Stallmans, the Linus Torvalds, the Mark Andreesens, the Tim Burners Lees, the Steve Wozniaks of the world are never going to come out of Harvard Business. And for that matter less than 1% of the Fortune 500 are staffed by Ivy league Graduates.

    Easy for me to say since I didn’t graduate from an Ivy League College.

  10. Having actually looked at an Internet kiosk in a remote location (only accessible by light aircraft–something you can probably relate to), I am not in agreement about this. Most people didn’t know what to do with the Internet,but more to the point, the local mindset around issues of time did not suddenly change. People continue to send important messages by hand and through trusted networks. The people who seemed to use the technology the most were mainly elites or tourists. The idea that bridging digital divides will have a transformative effect seems highly overstated.

  12. I doubt Phil will take advice over what to write about. I hope he doesn’t. I too disagree with his views on Spain but I really value his counterintuitive ideas in general, and you have to take it as a whole.

  13. Jeff that is a really nice story ( http://www.greenstar.org/butterflies/Hole-in-the-Wall.htm ).

    However, are we sure that given the same slum kids $300 worth of comic books, pens and paper they would have achieved better results?

    The sad truth behind the story of many children in the developing world are thirsty for any kind of knowledge and new stimulation. The kids will play with and figure out anything you put in front of them.

  14. Marty

    Mitra’s idea does not have to be confined to the dveloping world.

    Jeff

  15. I can save you some time and tell you the result of the debate: the business process is what matters. IT is valued relative to how it applies to business processes. So it is not that IT is worthless, but that IT is not a goal in itself.

    Carr advises companies to not invest in IT, but to copy the leaders. His reasoning is flawed because he ignores the competetive advantage that truly good IT provides. This competetive advantage tied to excellent management is why companies like Amazon, Dell, GE, and WalMart are all so effective. These companies spend a relatively high amount on IT compared to their competitors. But Carr is right that you can’t buy good IT by buying a set of Oracle databases. IT must be evaluated strategically in concert with overall business processes. Very few businesses do this well.

    On the ticket pricing example, it is worth asking how the business process and model could be further improved. Already, there is a benefit of not needing to wait in line for tickets. Competitors will drive down ticket commission eventually as this is a (relatively) open market and the economics are simple. Further innovations include better means to match up ticket-buyers with like-minded people (communities), better notification of event you would be interested in, and better purchasing venues (more on mobile phone- further elimination of ticket queues).

    On real-estate, I don’t think there is an opportunity to change commissions as they are usually linked to value provided by realtors. What the e-realty services (realtor.com, etc.) provide are better ways of finding properties, finding price comparables (for better pricing), and following the real estate market.

    As to your point on 3rd world countries… you’re on to a big entrepreneurship opportunity. The channel to provide this is the web through cafes and the mobile phone. Financing definitely isn’t the problem. Fufillment channels, surprisingly, isn’t the problem either. Finding business people who will do the work and setup the business is the issue- it requires living in the foreign country and assumes a relatively stable government there; this narrows the field considerably. I assisted with a talent search for something related in Africa and it took months even with a handsome USD based salary on the table. Rather than waste time debating this on a $350 call, why don’t you just get in gear and go do it? Many “retired” professionals go after such opportunities and end up making more money than before they “retired.” That was one of the reasons for the eventual person who took the IT opportunity in Africa. It is really hard to find qualified people in the US who will move to Africa or similar for 3-5 years, even if they have been unemployed for a year plus and win a huge income. There is a huge opportunity for those that are willing to go…

    In the US, IT spend will be on systems that…

    * Make IT maintenance easier (e.g. automate IT and further rightsize that organization)
    * Provide integration at the process and document level
    * Better link business people with IT people

    Enterprise IT spend in the US & Europe will be more or less flat for some time. If we hit double-digit growth it will be because of computer games, not because of some big new IT innovation. IT will grow dramatically in China, India, and SE Asia in the short term, and in Africa and South America in the long term.

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