The way I see future

Businesses always want to have strategic advantage to out perform their rivals. In present day and age computers and software seems to be that strategic advantage.

In the early 1900’s businesses manufactured products. To succeed in the face of competition from competitors, they wanted to deliver their products faster to the customer. So they located their manufacturing closer to the river or the coast to ship their product. They realized that they could not reach the places not close to any river. So the business which could build its own rail network became very successful.

These businesses saw a very big market for their goods. They wanted to plug the demand supply gaps. Working through the nights was their best option. Since most of the successful businesses were already close to the river they installed water turbines to generate electricity.

Electricity and railways was a tactical advantage for the businesses then. Now we see electricity and railways have become a commonly available infrastructure and they no more provide that strategic advantage.

Similarly computers and software will be come a commonly available infrastructure. The revolution has already begun in the form of Open Source Software. This coupled with the availability of cheap computers make this advantage very short lived.