Bringing the cloud down to earth – WCC2010 Keynote by Nicholas Carr

Nicholas Carr is of course the infamous author of “IT Does Not Matter” published in the May 2003 edition of the Harvard Business Review. The paper was widely criticized heavily. I generally don’t agree with the criticism against the arguments, but feel that the title deceive.  The paper argues for IT becoming a “utility”, in the same way that electricity became a utility. So the title is equal to saying “Electricity does not matter”, clearly not the case.  What is the case, however, is that IT has lost its benefit as competitive advantage (at least for the average company) and it is more of a necessity than ever before.

To listen or not to listen…

When at an event where multiple presentations are made the question is always to listen or not to listen… Obviously there are criteria that differ from person to person.  If the topics are diverse, the choice is (mostly) easy as the topic may ease the decision.  But what if the topics are nearer to one another, or you have a keen interest in more than one topic?