Apologies and Clarifications

by Jon Thompson on October 26, 2008

First off, I apologize for the long delay of new posts but I just started with a green building firm in San Francisco and that work is taking a lot of my time.  I hope that once things stabilize I will be able to get back to my regular posting schedule.

While the fault is mine I have to say that there has has not been a lot of interest, other than the election and economy, for me to write about.  However, there are some news stories and a few gadgets on the radar that I will write about shortly.

A few weeks back I launched into a diatribe about the lack of innovation on the part of the IT community in regards to the developing world.  Certainly there has been substantial development in a few distinct fields but overall it seems that there is a dearth of impressive developments.  The top five innovations that I have covered will be highlighted in my next post.

In the mean time I would just like to add that I don’t think the mediocrity is coming from the developers.  On the contrary all the developers that I have had the privilege of getting to know seem to be the real innovators.  The mediocrity seems to be coming from the management structure that these folks must work under.

I would liken the situation to the same one my brother encountered in the recording industry where once mighty recording studios became bloated with upper echelon execs that knew little of their product and who were eventually undermined by home based studios and Internet song swapping.  It seems that only by navigating around these individuals who lack vision and impede rather than facilitate development can the artist (or developer in this case) really respond to the needs of the developing world.  Unfortunately, those same management types hold the purse strings and in this tight economy few people will be brazen enough to challenge the establishment.

I never thought I’d be calling the tech industry backward but in some respects they are and hopefully this economic shake up will help the cream rise to the surface.  I have already seen some of these executive types jump ship for greener pastures and hopefully the trend will continue.  For now, please understand that I am not ripping on the individual rather the institution and that I believe the greatest innovation is yet to come.

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