Henry Ford once said [1]: “If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse.” Ford had something ‘rather’ different in mind. It was an idea that was almost incomprehensible – at that time. By now we know that Ford’s idea became a world changing one. What would our world look like without cars? We cannot even imagine.
Ford gave his customers an automobile. It’s true; our cars nowadays house many, many HP’s. And in a way automobiles indeed can be seen as faster horses. Yet, at the same moment, automobiles offer – highly valued! – possibilities that exceed traditional power-of-horses by far. Today’s world is not possible using faster horses.
No, a car is not a faster horse. Again: no, an Information Roundabout is not a faster, a more sophisticated enterprise service bus for our data exchanges. Believe me: there is more, much more to it.
Unfortunately the Information Roundabout idea seems very hard to see or grasp. The world changing capabilities of an Information Roundabout are almost incomprehensible. In our contemporary world the only way to ‘responsibly’ act, seems to ask for more and faster horses. Enormous amounts of money are spent and wasted every day to improve service busses, to improve processes for integration management, to jack up our horses, to at best marginally solve our severing and hindering problems.
An Information Roundabout – because of its horse exceeding qualities – simply solves persistent problems like increasing information inconsistency and the endless duplication of information. It opens up a sphere of unprecedented possibilities.
You see? Or do you rather stick to a faster horse? Henry Ford knows what you’re struggling with – knows what serves you better. Therefore an automobile, or, for this matter, an Information Roundabout is ‘all’ you’re going to be served with.
October 2011, Copyright (c) 2011 – Jan van Til/Information Roundabout
Notes:
1. Did Ford really say it? There are various opinions about this quote. I assume Ford did say it. Why? It suits me. Of key importance here is, of course, the notion that radiates from it. Ford saw what no one saw at that time and he very confidently stuck to his idea… and changed the world.