David Tebbutt

In Web 2.0 circles, you often hear the “IT is dead” theme, or meme, as they like to term it. Or you may hear “IT will become a utility” as an alternative – the idea that IT will provide the platform and users everything else.

Enthusiasts for user-driven computing speak of widgets and plug-ins and software as a service (SaaS) and truly believe they own the future. No more waiting for IT. No more botched implementations. Users know what they want and they’re going to make sure they get it.

Users speak of saying goodbye to “bloatware” and just getting their 20% subset of, say, a spreadsheet application from a low-cost or free supplier. With some software clearly bloated – so the supplier can extract a periodic harvest revenue from upgrades – this appears to make sense, although it does rather assume that everyone wants the same 20%.

But even though a lot of desktop software is not bloatware at all, it is attacked just the same for being “proprietary” or “closed” or whatever. Not all programs can be driven from a web server. Some can only deliver results as desktop clients, even though they are happy to share their inputs and outputs with the outside world. You only have to use some popular blog or wiki software to see how unresponsive some SaaS implementations can be.

If they’re open-minded enough, people in IT are happy to consider the implications of the widget/Web 2.0 world and advise on the practicalities. The problem is that “authority” is being undermined. We are all becoming selfish and cliquey and listening to the echo chamber of our community. Resentment and hostility towards IT as an authority is, albeit with some justification, widespread.

It reminds me of the early days of the PC. It, too, promised liberation from the tyranny of IT. Users could buy their own computers and software and operate them independently of IT. Sharing stuff was easy using floppy disks and “sneakernet”.

As long as there were only a few people doing this, it was fine. But once people started to produce stuff that others needed to refer to, the informal approach broke down. IT got involved, set up networks and permissions, content management systems and all the rest of the paraphernalia and the PC became part of the overall IT infrastructure.

As long as the rounded corners and superficially sexy Web 2.0 software does not affect users’ lives too much, then IT will bide its time. After all, why not let the users experiment and filter the good from the bad, as long as they can justify the distraction to their own bosses?

But, sooner or later, users will realise that selecting and tweaking software is not what they were put on earth for. They will see that they have created a Tower of Babel. And it will dawn on them that their IT freedoms have turned into shackles.

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