Israel Gat added his thoughts to a post by Marcel Den Hartog wherein Marcel discussed technology assimilation in the face of hype. While the post talks mainly about the adoption of cloud computing in IT organizations (which is steadily picking up), Marcel brings up a point that is true with all new technologies:
When the press, the analysts and the industry start writing about cloud as part of the IT solution, people will want to change. Now that it’s presented as the silver bullet to all IT problems, people are cautious to say the least.
I remember when the Ruby on Rails community was starting to grow. We were a belligerent bunch, and I was very guilty of proclaiming that Rails was the best thing since sliced bread. I fed the hype engine much to my benefit. Luckily, the hype was able to backed up, and Rails has more than shown it’s worth, especially for our clients.
But do we need to hype technology to make it popular, so that others can see the same benefits that we do? Or, can we instead let the results speak for themselves, laying out the facts plain as day and letting people come to the conclusion that it’s a great choice for them?
Cloud computing is a recent instance, as is Agile development. We use both to great effect, and help clients to the same. There is a lot of hype surrounding both, which seems to both help and hurt adoption. Some see these as useful to their businesses, while others see these as buzzwords and potential fads.
However neither of these are fads. Teams need to become more agile, as does business. Cost cutting is ongoing in a still uncertain economy. And fear continues to be both a great driver of change and a reason to resist it. Inaction is also a decision, though rarely the right one.
I put the question to you
Is society such that we need sensationalism and hype in order to increase the adoption of technology, or can it stand on it’s own merits?
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