Backa's First Law

The level at which a technology is a commodity moves up the ISO model over time.

There was a day when a wireless phone was novel, expensive and difficult to make work. Now we take them for granted. The ISO and its interpretations provide the framework for a connected, digital universe. There was a day when getting a 3Com network adapter to exchange packets with a Novell adapter was a challenge. Now everyone takes this level of connectivity for granted. Later there was a time when getting a Mac, a PC, and a Unix box to talk was a challenge. Now this too is commodity technology.

There is a continous trend here. Namely the action and the interesting problems move up the ISO model over time. Below this line, everything is a commodity and can be assumed to work. Above the line, most things have no clear defacto standards and are likely not to interoperate well.

Once you understand where this line is, you can figure out other things like the relative economics of playing in one space or another.

Friday, September 03, 2004 4:46:08 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)      Comments [0]  Backa's Laws

Backa's Laws

Most of us have heard of Moore's Law, Murphy's Law, and other Natural Laws that apply to technology and sometimes life itself. Backa's Laws add other observable laws of nature to this collection.

Friday, September 03, 2004 4:31:20 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)      Comments [0]  Backa's Laws