As many of you know by hard-won experience, getting any new technologies used by workers adopted by corporate I.T. departments is always a struggle. After all, what do non-I.T. workers know about the CTO's office? Turns out that they know a lot and their swarming activities are changing the way companies manage their computing activities. Here is what Beyond VC's Ed Sims has to say on the topic:

Last year I wrote about the newfound productivity of the prosumer, the consumer who is bringing technologies into the workplace in a DIY (do it yourself) fashion. If IT can't or won't get something done, users can simply check the Internet for the latest web-based service or software download to help them solve their problem. In this month's CIO Magazine which landed on my desk somehow, the cover article is titled "Users Who Know Too Much and the CIOs Who Fear Them." The subtitle is "They're smart, productive and using IT you didn't provide. How to manage the modern user." I think we are at the very beginning stages now of IT's recognition that the world is changing and like Jeff Nolan says the balance on the continuum of systems and people should move more towards a people-centric vision of technology. What do the people want and how do we provide them the ability to get things done while at the same time balancing our need to keep a safe and secure environment? Sometimes these issues are directly competing with one another. It is still quite early in the CIO's recognition of a user-centric IT world but the fact that CIO magazine is focusing on this means that it is becoming more critical to its readers.

Read his entire posting.

The point about this entry is simply this: high-end corporate computing is being (...read more...)