[Sigia-l] IBM Reinvents E-mail

[Listera]

"Phil Glatz" wrote:

> At 01:16 PM 12/10/2003 -0500, Listera wrote:
>> Quick, name three fundamental UI advances ever made by IBM. Having a hard
>> time? :-)
> 
> Don't discount them too fast - they do a lot of basic research,

I'm a huge fan of IBM basic research; they are the best at it.

> which always doesn't make it first into the mainstream.

I am specifically referring to UI/usability issues. On that score IBM fails
miserably. 

I'll take IBM seriously when it can solve UI/usability issues of their own
shipping products, like the usability monstrosities DB2 and WebSphere. If
IBM knows how to tame complexity it should apply it to EJB and Linux, which
they are also pushing.

Contrast that with another company whose success/survival literally depends
on its ability to tame technological complexity. Compare iTunes Music Store
(and the subterraneous stuff involving UI, networking, caching, fetching,
payment consolidation, DRM, etc) to any other music service. Compare EJB to
its equivalent in WebObjects. Compare Apple's Rendezvous to Sun's JINI.
Compare the-still-evolving XCode to similar IDEs.

In that sense, Apple succeeds by taming complexity, IBM by having its
clients throwing money at complexity. Why? Because IBM makes a huge amount
of money from consulting/services. Fundamentally, reduction of complexity is
bad for their business. In fact Sun (another company that couldn't find its
way to UI/usability sensibility out of a wet paper bag) used to run ads
making fun of IBM pushing complex solutions for enterprise problems and then
'solving' them with its mammoth consultant army.

Why am I so pissed off at IBM on this score? Because, given their size, if
they truly cared about UI/usability they are in a position to establish very
significant trends in the industry, like their ability to 'legitimize' Linux
for the enterprise.

I'm not amused by academic/theoretical whitepapers tucked away in some
website. I want to see it in shipping products. But I am not holding my
breath because companies like IBM and Sun don't sell to consumers and that's
where UI/usability innovations generally occur. If Sun can convince geeks to
live with the pornographic complexity of EJB where's the incentive to
innovate?
 
> The problem left to be solved, is that users are forced to organize threads
> the way the program wants them to, while ordinary users often have entirely
> different concepts of organization.

Bingo.

----
Ziya

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.