The itmWEB Information Technology Report

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A monthly report featuring selected IT topics and time sensitive links.

Volume 1, Number 12, December 1, 1997

Welcome to the 12th distribution of the itmWEB Information Technology Report. This month's edition is being distributed worldwide to 714 IT professionals and associates. You are receiving this report because you either requested it from one of the sites above, or you have been added to the email list as having a potential interest. itmWEB's policy is not to SPAM. The itmWEB report is a non-commercial, professional resource, and care is taken to only send the report to interested readers.

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CONTENTS:

1. The itmWEB Report
2. Some Odds and Ends
3. Microsoft in the News - and Under Attack
4. More IT News
5. IT Management Quickies
6. Reengineering
7. Book Review: Time Bomb 2000
8. Selected IT Resources

A quick note of thanks to all of you who have subscribed to the itmWEB Report. With the distribution of this 12th edition, the newsletter has been published for a full year!

We are very pleased with the diversity of the readership. About 46% of the itmWEB Report subscribers are in 28 countries outside of the United States. Every major geographical region is represented by this subscriber list. The internet is truly making the world a smaller place for us all.

Thanks also goes to Jeff Gainer for his contributions to this month's report.

THE UP FRONT LINKS

A collection of time sensitive links covering current IT issues:

2. SOME ODDS AND ENDS:

Windows Magazine speculates about the predicted 1998 release of NT 5.0:

http://www.winmag.com/news/1101/1125b.htm

Finally, Novell shows a profit. At a time when the server software maker is quickly losing ground to NT. Windows magazine looks at what Novell is planning next now that they have their financial footing back:

http://www.winmag.com/news/1101/1126a.htm

Netscape Communications announces Java-based networked applications on the company's Open Network Environment. Called SuiteTools 2.0, this is Netscape's debute into the visual tool marketplace:

http://www2.computerworld.com/home/online9697.nsf/CWFlash/971119netscape1A63E

Newly Reported Pentium Bug a Killer:

http://mis.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa111097.htm

Crisis Control at Informix, Intel, and Microsoft:

http://mis.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa112097.htm

3. MICROSOFT IN THE NEWS .. AND UNDER ATTACK:

First, Microsoft responds to the Department of Justice charges:

http://www.winmag.com/news/1101/1112a.htm

Then, Ralph Nader convened a conference of Microsoft critics who warned that the software giant's goal is to is to control content on the World Wide Web:

http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=5934799-076

At the conference, Microsoft backers hand out buttons that say: "Ralph Nader doesn't speak for ME!":

http://www2.computerworld.com/home/online9697.nsf/CWFlash/971113you1A376

Next, during the annual Microsoft shareholders meeting, CEO Bill Gates lashes out at the critics accusing them of creating a "witch hunt atmosphere" and engaging in "anti-Microsoft activities":

http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=5954908-d7e

Then, Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, weighs in favor of the DOJ actions against Microsoft. "When a dominant company artificially dictates how, where, and even if consumers have choice in the online marketplace, it is time for the government to step in and enforce the antitrust laws.":

http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?sc?971124.edole.htm

Predictably, the DOJ produces an internal Microsoft email from Microsoft Senior Vice President Jim Allchin to Group Vice President Paul Maritz which reads: "My conclusion is that we must leverage Windows more. Treating IE as just an add-on to Windows, which is cross-platform [is] losing our biggest advantage - Windows market share.":

http://www2.computerworld.com/home/online9697.nsf/CWFlash/971121doj1A80A

Microsoft reacts to recent European Commission actions by modifying its contract with SCO to comply with European Union antitrust rules. The European Commission says it will close the file and take no further action regarding the dispute:

http://www2.computerworld.com/home/online9697.nsf/CWFlash/971125microsoft1A8EE

Then the US Senate Judiciary Committee holds a meeting at which they listen to several antitrust experts discuss the Microsoft situation:

http://www.winmag.com/news/1101/1105a.htm

As a follow-up to Microsoft's formal reply, the DOJ files their own counter reply with the U.S. District Court in Washington. The DOJ responds to Microsoft's claim that Internet Explorer (IE) is actually an integrated feature of Windows 95:

http://www.winmag.com/news/1101/1124b.htm

Seeming to keep the negative public relations flowing, Microsoft advises companies that it will end concurrent licensing of desktop applications in December. This action will increase the cost of Microsoft Office for some companies by a factor four to ten (Source: Gartner Group). This sends the educational institution CIOs - who depend on this licensing to keep their costs down - into panic mode:

http://www2.computerworld.com/home/online9697.nsf/CWFlash/971106end19FEE

Recovering, Microsoft opens their new INTRANET SOLUTIONS CENTER, which sends developers in droves to the Microsoft web site looking free white papers, FAQ's, case studies, and downloadable Intranet solutions (including a fully working DHTML sample site):

http://www.microsoft.com/Intranet

My favorite article of the month is this two sided analysis of the situation from Fortune Magazine:

http://fortune.com/digitalwatch/1124wat.html

Can Microsoft generate any more news than this in one month??

4. MORE IT NEWS:

Sun wins a majority of votes from ISO members to become a Publicly Available Specification submitter for Java. This means Sun can now submit the Java Language, the Java Virtual Machine, and the Java class library specifications for approval as internationally recognized standards:

http://www2.computerworld.com/home/online9697.nsf/CWFlash/971118sun1A552
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/971117/javasoft_sun_micro_1.html
http://www.javasoft.com/pr/1997/nov/pr971117.html

CNET reviews the new Netscape Communicator 4.04 release. They site improved Java performance, improvements for corporate users, and a reduced bug count:

http://www.cnet.com/Dispatch/0%2c118%2c272%2c00.html?dd

Apple Computer announces the Power Macintosh G3. It also launches the Apple Store as part of its new distribution strategy:

http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=5883632-63e
http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?sc?971110.eapdirect.htm

Forrester Research holds a huge conference regarding the future of the internet:

http://www.forrester.com/events/forum/boston/index.htm

The president of Forrester Research predicts that the Web will be done in by its own technological limitations:

http://www2.computerworld.com/home/online9697.nsf/CWFlash/971110analyst1A136

The CIO is the CEO of the Future:

http://www.cio.com/conferences/eds/

Domain names disputes get ugly:

http://www.cio.com/archive/webbusiness/110197_gray.html

When Bad Things Happen to Good Projects:

http://www.cio.com/archive/101597_bad.html

E-mail usage policy issues:

http://www2.computerworld.com/home/online9697.nsf/CWFlash/971120most1A74E

Internet usage policy issues:

http://www.cio.com/archive/111597_cops.html

This Month's Selected IT Topic:

Reengineering IT
By Jeff Gainer
Arrowhead Systems Consulting, Ltd.

Redefining Reengineering:
Since the publication of Reengineering the Corporation, the term "reengineering" has been imbued with so many erroneous meanings that it is now difficult to remember the true goals of reengineering. The first popular fallacy about reengineering was that it was synonymous with downsizing. The newest fallacy is that reengineering is synonymous with the introduction of new information technology. Reengineering is no more about downsizing than it is about blindly adopting new technologies without sound business reasons.

Reengineering does involve using information in new ways-and IT can often provide a vehicle for doing so. But merely deploying new technology is not reengineering.

The IT Reengineering Paradox:
Just as it is not synonymous with downsizing, reengineering is not merely throwing information technology funds at business problems as if "reengineering IT" will magically fix all of an organization's ills. The sad fact is that without critically redesigning a business' processes first, a "reengineering" effort serves only to automate the old broken processes. As Hammer and Champy observed, "The fundamental error that most companies commit when they look at technology is to view it through the lens of their existing processes."

The Role of IT:
It is a natural fit for IT professionals to take an active role in reengineering efforts. Information systems are not a panacea for business ills, but an enabling technology for nonlinear, nonsequential reengineering solutions. Prior the introduction of new technologies, we must fully define the abstract principals underlying the business. It is at this early stage that IT professionals can help create the essential culture of breakthrough thinking necessary to reengineer business processes. The purpose of reengineering-and IT's role in it-is to transform ideas about existing processes, not to merely streamline existing ideas.

Otherwise, we're just speeding up the same old broken processes.

Copyright 1997, Jeff Gainer, All Rights Reserved http://www.montana.com/asc/

Jeff Gainer is a software development management consultant and traveling IT evangelist. He has preached software development sermons at a number of organizations both in the United States and Russia. The author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, Mr. Gainer's current focus is his forthcoming process management book - Lucid Code: Taming Software Development Chaos.

Time Bomb 2000: What the Year 2000 Computer Crisis Means to You
By Edward & Jennifer Yourdon
Prentice Hall, 300 pages. US$ 19.95

Scheduled for publication December 19, 1997.

Reviewed by Jeff Gainer
Arrowhead Systems Consulting, Ltd.

Penned by software guru Edward Yourdon and his daughter Jennifer, an investment banker, Time Bomb 2000 is about the possible forthcoming effects the Year-2000 software problem. Unlike most books on the subject, this is not a technical book. Instead, the Yourdons discuss the personal effects of the millennium bug.

The preface, written in the second person, portrays the reader waking up, hung over, on the Saturday morning of January 1, 2000. Initially amusing, the preface becomes increasingly disturbing as the reader discovers that the coffeemaker doesn't work, the phone line is dead, the refrigerator is beginning to leak, and the ATM down the street eats cash cards. From this vignette, the authors move to a brief discussion of the nature of the Year 2000 software problem and an overview of its economic effects, including the all-important "ripple effect." The authors warn that the degree of the effect is difficult to predict and could range from a series of minor inconveniences to economic catastrophe and massive civil unrest.

Subsequent chapters discuss the possible effects on jobs, banking and finance, food, transportation, medical care, communications and utilities, with "Fallback Advice" recommendations at the conclusion of each chapter. The "fallback" recommendations are arranged for service interruptions of a few days, a month, a year, or ten years. It is up to the reader to judge for himself how serious the problems could be and prepare accordingly.

A profoundly disturbing book, Time Bomb 2000 offers practical, personal advice on the possible economic fallout of the Year 2000 software problem, particularly for those readers living in urban areas.

Copyright 1997, Jeff Gainer, All Rights Reserved http://www.montana.com/asc/

To pre-order this important book at a 30% discount, use this link:

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THIS MONTH'S PLUG:

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