Ten years in the tech world. The more things change...
Ten years is a long time in the tech world. A look back at Backbone’s 2001 content reveals that much has changed and nothing has changed
By Peter Wolchak
February 25, 2011
February 25, 2011
The untapped Internet: In March 2001, Toronto financial expert Brendan Caldwell opined: “We haven’t thought of an eighth of the applications we’re going to put on [the Internet].” As the founding of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and eBay was still years away, Caldwell was dead right, and the statement is as true today.
Consumer tech is all about money: The consumer tech industry exists because purchase costs dropped precipitously. Consider these 2001 price tags: Sony Portable DVD player, $1,999; Fujitsu Windows 98 tablet notebook, $3,400; and a Pioneer PC-based DVD burner, $1,570.
Had prices stayed high, none of the devices we now own would have ever been mass-market successes. Functionality and design matter, as Apple repeatedly proves, but even a fantastic portable DVD player will be a niche product at $2,000.
There still aren’t enough women in tech: An early 2001 article asked why online companies don’t pay more attention to female consumers and why there aren’t more women in technology. Sad to say, this hasn’t changed enough in the last decade. The University of Calgary reports female enrolment in the undergraduate computer science program is around 13 per cent.
I miss the crazy ideas: While not advocating a return to the silly days of the late ’90s, I do miss all that unbridled enthusiasm. Consider eBox.com: the company wanted in on the burgeoning e-tailing market and offered to “install a secure heavy-duty box anchored to a 100-pound base” outside customers’ houses. The boxes were “sledgehammer-, blowtorch- and saw-resistant.” eBox also ran the online store from which items were purchased for delivery to the boxes; its offerings included food, liquor, kitchen gadgets and home pregnancy tests, all carried by silent “stealth trucks” in the wee hours.
We first covered eBox in 2001, and by 2002 Sears and Canada Post had expressed interest, but, alas, eBox was not destined for glory.
But Workbrain did well: In the same issue we also profiled Workbrain, a start-up pushing Employee Relationship Management. Workbrain operated for years and earned revenue of $41,734,000 in 2007, according to the Branham300 list published by Backbone. It was bought by Infor Global Solutions that year.
What’s CRM? In this issue we cover the various definitions of cloud computing; back in July 2001 we wrote: “Precisely defining Customer Relationship Management is a tricky exercise.” CRM now generates billions of dollars in revenue, so by that metric we can expect huge cloud computing revenue before 2021.
And who cares about IPv6? This stopped me dead: “The world is running out of IP (Internet Protocol) numbers,” we wrote in late 2001, on the transition from IP version 4 to IP version 6.
Why was I stopped dead? Because at a ceremony last month in Florida, a governing Internet body handed out the last set of IPv4 addresses. John Curran, chief executive of the American Registry for Internet Numbers, told CNet this “doesn’t mean there are no IPv4 addresses available. This is not the absolute end, but this is the definitive point where people know that we are indeed going to run out of IPv4 addresses and that they need to begin planning” for IPv6.
We said that 10 years ago. Again, everything changes in the technology world, and nothing changes. Here’s to another decade of Backbone.
Peter Wolchak, Editor
Also in this issue: We look back at a decade in tech
Consumer tech is all about money: The consumer tech industry exists because purchase costs dropped precipitously. Consider these 2001 price tags: Sony Portable DVD player, $1,999; Fujitsu Windows 98 tablet notebook, $3,400; and a Pioneer PC-based DVD burner, $1,570.
Had prices stayed high, none of the devices we now own would have ever been mass-market successes. Functionality and design matter, as Apple repeatedly proves, but even a fantastic portable DVD player will be a niche product at $2,000.
There still aren’t enough women in tech: An early 2001 article asked why online companies don’t pay more attention to female consumers and why there aren’t more women in technology. Sad to say, this hasn’t changed enough in the last decade. The University of Calgary reports female enrolment in the undergraduate computer science program is around 13 per cent.
I miss the crazy ideas: While not advocating a return to the silly days of the late ’90s, I do miss all that unbridled enthusiasm. Consider eBox.com: the company wanted in on the burgeoning e-tailing market and offered to “install a secure heavy-duty box anchored to a 100-pound base” outside customers’ houses. The boxes were “sledgehammer-, blowtorch- and saw-resistant.” eBox also ran the online store from which items were purchased for delivery to the boxes; its offerings included food, liquor, kitchen gadgets and home pregnancy tests, all carried by silent “stealth trucks” in the wee hours.
We first covered eBox in 2001, and by 2002 Sears and Canada Post had expressed interest, but, alas, eBox was not destined for glory.
But Workbrain did well: In the same issue we also profiled Workbrain, a start-up pushing Employee Relationship Management. Workbrain operated for years and earned revenue of $41,734,000 in 2007, according to the Branham300 list published by Backbone. It was bought by Infor Global Solutions that year.
What’s CRM? In this issue we cover the various definitions of cloud computing; back in July 2001 we wrote: “Precisely defining Customer Relationship Management is a tricky exercise.” CRM now generates billions of dollars in revenue, so by that metric we can expect huge cloud computing revenue before 2021.
And who cares about IPv6? This stopped me dead: “The world is running out of IP (Internet Protocol) numbers,” we wrote in late 2001, on the transition from IP version 4 to IP version 6.
Why was I stopped dead? Because at a ceremony last month in Florida, a governing Internet body handed out the last set of IPv4 addresses. John Curran, chief executive of the American Registry for Internet Numbers, told CNet this “doesn’t mean there are no IPv4 addresses available. This is not the absolute end, but this is the definitive point where people know that we are indeed going to run out of IPv4 addresses and that they need to begin planning” for IPv6.
We said that 10 years ago. Again, everything changes in the technology world, and nothing changes. Here’s to another decade of Backbone.
Also in this issue: We look back at a decade in tech
