BBS's...

[rhc at world.std.com (rich clancey)]

	Member feedback sounds like the only choice at this stage.

	Personally, I'd like to talk about the lack of controversy in the 
publications.  We went through the entire "Windows 95" Religious Wars in 
the usenet groups without a peep in the BCS publications, at least that I 
saw.

	The computing culture has changed, and it's no longer a matter 
confused users looking for knowledgable mentors.  Now a lot of people
know what they're talking about, and there are plenty of resources outside
of BCS for getting questions answered. 

	BCS perhaps ought to encourage some serious debate on the real 
issues, such as Software Bloat, Featuritis, and the whole macho culture 
of buying ever bigger and "better" versions of software even though 
nobody actually needs them.

	The great issue in Enterprise Computing has nothing to do with 
the World Wide Web.  It has to do with the fact that IS managers are 
spending serious amounts of money without being able to show solid 
returns, and CEO's are budgeting the money to IS because they don't know 
whether the IS department is hustling them or not.

	Sorry to start blowing off steam this way, but surely at this 
late date there are people reasonably well placed on the money side of 
large businesses who also have a better grasp of what computers can and 
can't do than the older generation which has OK'd the money for buying a 
lot of useless "multi-media" hardware and software without any idea of 
what it could do for the business.

	Let's have some realistic business people in charge of BCS for a 
while, and see if we can't begin to generate some better ideas for the 
future of computing than the space cadets at the MIT media lab.


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| rich clancey                       PROWNESS IS ENDOWMENT                    |
| rhc at world.std.com                    musical prowness                       |
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