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Using Technology to Make People More Powerful

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Ian Heron

For some time now our Business Technology Tools have been getting less powerful. It's time for that to change.

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Using Technology to Make People More Powerful Creating the Ability to Meet Bigger Challenges Ian Heron Director of Strategy & Innovation at OmniCommand Ltd
Our Modern World is Amazing, But Frustrating!  Computing has affected every aspect of our lives, the way we work, live, love and communicate has changed beyond all recognition in the last 40 years.  This has happened due to an explosion of technology that is inexpensive and readily available.  But we have only just scratched the surface.  Most of us are only able to use computer solutions designed by other people.  Many of the devices we own are no more functional than they were on the day that we bought them.  That usually means compromising in all sorts of ways.  On top of that, computer solutions take a long time to develop.  What would the world be like if we could all build our own solutions quickly and cheaply?
Who is Empowered Today?  In 2016 IDC, (International Data Corporation), estimated that approximately 21 Million people out of the 7 billion on the planet could develop code.  That means only 1 in every 333 people can program any part of a computer.  The technologies they are using are so complicated that each of them can usually only develop a small part of a complete solution.  As today’s development languages are very detailed, even that small part takes a lot of time and effort to construct.  The skills are so hard to learn that these individuals usually don’t have a wealth of experience in other trades or roles.  This means that a small army of analysts are necessary to help them understand how to build a solution that will meet the needs of their customer.  It is clear that big changes are needed if we are to empower people to fully utilise the technology at their disposal.
Onwards & Upwards  JohnVincentAtanasoff invented Digital, (Binary) Computing in the 1930’s. If you wanted to program a computer to add two numbers together and remember the answer you had to set at least 112 individual bits or instructions.  In the 1940’s various pioneers worked to simplify this and in 1951 Maurice Wilkes inventedAssembly language allowing the same thing to be achieved with 4 instructions.  In 1954 John Backus invented the first ‘high level’ computing language, (Fortran), which could add two numbers together with a single instruction.  In the Mid 1970’s SQL, (StructuredQuery Language), was invented by Donald Chamberlin allowing large groups of numbers or information to be processed with a single instruction, unfortunately this approach was only ever applied to database development.  These are examples of the four main generations of programming languages developed to date.  This progression was based on a simple idea: “As the language gets simpler – it gets easier, cheaper and quicker to achieve more”  Since the 1970’s the new languages developed have become more complex with each release.We appear to have moved backwards.
An End to Advancement  In the mid 1990’s a major shift in thinking occurred.  I.T companies began to realise that their profits were not being generated from the software itself but from the services they could offer around that software.  Further simplification was not in their commercial best interests, if everyone could do anything then how would they sell technical services?  Marketing teams began driving technical product direction away from simplicity and a new range of complex technologies were born:  Microsoft abandoned its Market leading Visual Basic language and began work on the far more complicated and lower level .Net suite.  James Gosling at Sun Microsystems developed Java – a new low level language that tried to offer cross platform portability, (a promise that was never really fulfilled).  Since 1996 these have become the dominant development languages for Business applications.  When Apple released its revolutionary iPhone in 2007, it could only be programmed with a version of the C++ language which was invented by Bjarne Stroustrup in 1979 and was even more complicated than Java and .Net.  So our relationship with computers stopped improving in the mid 1990’s, and has actually deteriorated since.  Today it is more difficult and expensive to develop, deploy and operate a business application than it has ever been.
So What’s the Problem?  Surely we’re all quite happy? – After all, many Billion Dollar industries are based on slow, complex coding technologies and the implications of their use.  However, these complex technologies mean that:  Technology almost always changes more slowly than businesses need it to, setting the pace at which organisations can evolve  Massive change is almost impossible to deliver, compounding complexity and cost across large systems quickly stops them being viable  It is so difficult to program a computer that only a tiny percentage of the population can do it, the rest can only use them.  Our needs are growing:  People are getting used to the power Applications can give them and their expectations are changing, they want their large institutions to be Digitally enabled, (Government, Health Services etc). Attempts to do this have been pitiful at best and have often failed.  The Internet of Things, (IoT), is rapidly multiplying the number of programmable devices on the planet, and there aren’t anywhere near enough programmers to meet the demand this is generating.  This excessive complexity leads to high levels of inefficiency which wastes resources, this is no longer ecologically tolerable.  There has been a long trail of projects that have failed because they were so complicated they were unmanageable.  Solutions are so complex that it is impossible to secure them, criminals have only recently woken up to how easy and lucrative Cybercrime is but the Genie is now most definitely out of the bottle.  In Short - we have squeezed every last drop of capability out of complex coding, now we need something more powerful.
OmniFabric – The Next Step  We wanted to invent a new kind of programming conversation.  We wanted a command structure so simple that it could be learned and remembered in moments.  We wanted a flow based graphical interface so that the function of a program would be quick and easy to understand.  We wanted the build tools to be internet based so that no installation was required and they would be available from anywhere in the world.  We wanted powerful search tools to help Builders locate functionality quickly and easily  We wanted names and descriptions to be in proper sentences, to make it quick and easy to understand the role of each item.  We wanted a clear and easy way to handle variables, arguments and errors, eliminating many of the most common mistakes in programming.  We wanted 3rd parties to be able to add their own functionality to the platform quickly and cheaply.  We wanted an interactive browser-based debugger that would allow Builders to diagnose and repair solutions from anywhere in the world in real-time.  We wanted a build environment that could handle content and assets as well as programs  We wanted programs that could move from machine to machine, removing the need to build separate integration technology.  We wanted integration, threading and clustering to be handled with a few simple instructions.  We wanted programs to be capable of modifying their own operation during execution.  We wanted a language so simple and quick, that it would eventually be possible to program it with a Joystick. So that’s what we built
Today’s Languages vs OmniFabric  Java,VB .Net and OmniFabric can all be used to develop solutions:  VB .Net has 224 significant words or phrases that control program flow or take an action.  Java has 50.  OmniFabric has 5.  Java and VB require complex integration components to talk between platforms.  OmniFabric doesn’t.  Java and Visual Basic programs appear as densely populated lists of complex text.  OmniFabric Agents look like a chart.  Java has to be modified to move between different devices and only runs on a few platforms  Visual Basic only runs on Microsoft supported platforms  OmniFabric runs on most major platforms without any modification at all.  Visual Basic and Java Solutions are developed, tested and deployed as hundreds or sometimes thousands of separate files  OmniFabric Personalities are created, tested and deployed as a single file.  Visual Basic and Java solutions have to be installed and configured  OmniFabric Personalities just have to be copied to the target platform Which is more powerful? Agent Execute Agents Data Work with Information or Assets, (Images, Videos etc). Calculate Do Anything Mathematical. Decide Make Decisions. Action Make Things Happen.
A Simple Comparison – Building a Web Server  The current version of the popular and powerful Apache Web Server has slightly under 2 million lines of code in it.  This enables it to:  Receive Requests and Return Web components  Encrypt Connections  Process Cookies  Process HTTP Headers  Support Identification and Access Control  Integrate with Back-End Systems, application servers and databases  Work in clusters and handle threading properly to enable scalability and fast performance  Log Activity & Handle Errors  The code has been developed and refined by thousands of developers over many years  The equivalent functionality offered in OmniFabric has 187 Steps in it.  With a little training it can be built in a few days.  For those who don’t understand how a web server works or don’t have time for training, a template exists that will create a Web Server for them in 4 clicks, They can then extend this to create any kind of application they want.  An example of the main Web Server Agent is shown to the right.  If this OmniFabric Web Server is developed on Windows or Unix then copied to an iPhone or Android phone it will function perfectly without any further changes
So Where Does This Leave Us?  Before OmniFabric, a whole team of technical experts were needed to build and deploy Web Applications.  Now anybody can do it.  Before OmniFabric, Web applications needed to run on powerful computers  Now they can run on a phone or even a wristwatch  Before OmniFabric, Applications took forever to develop.  Now many can be up and running in minutes  Before OmniFabric, solutions needed to be documented to be supportable  Now they document themselves  Before OmniFabric, it took months to learn basic programming  Now it takes hours  Before OmniFabric, solutions had to be developed on the platform they would run on  Now they can be developed on any platform and run on any other  Before OmniFabric, solutions had to be debugged offline  Now problems can be diagnosed on the live platform in real time from anywhere in the world  Now Everyone is a Programmer! Do you feel powerful yet?
Into the Future  If we are to survive and thrive as a species then we have some huge challenges in front of us:  We have to either stop destroying our planet or get off it  We have to find a way to generate power plentifully, cheaply and cleanly  We have to establish a fairer system of global government and resource distribution  We have to find a way to synthetically respond to the evolving Viral and Bacterial landscape  We have to find a way to restart our own evolution  To achieve all of the above we have to better understand the universe that we live in  For all of these challenges our own intelligence and tenacity can only take us so far.  Technology will be the way that we enhance our ability to solve all of these problems, but to do that we must advance.  We must enable people to achieve more with the technology that they have.  We need a simpler solution that fully realises the power of that technology.  There are 7 billion amazing and creative individuals on our planet, when they are all capable of using small computers to realise big ideas, will there be anything we can’t achieve?
Take the Next Step…..Take the Next Step…  Contact us at OmniCommand Ltd for a demonstration of OmniFabric technology.  The future beckons, and it’s looking brighter all the time….

More Related Content

Using Technology to Make People More Powerful

  • 1. Using Technology to Make People More Powerful Creating the Ability to Meet Bigger Challenges Ian Heron Director of Strategy & Innovation at OmniCommand Ltd
  • 2. Our Modern World is Amazing, But Frustrating!  Computing has affected every aspect of our lives, the way we work, live, love and communicate has changed beyond all recognition in the last 40 years.  This has happened due to an explosion of technology that is inexpensive and readily available.  But we have only just scratched the surface.  Most of us are only able to use computer solutions designed by other people.  Many of the devices we own are no more functional than they were on the day that we bought them.  That usually means compromising in all sorts of ways.  On top of that, computer solutions take a long time to develop.  What would the world be like if we could all build our own solutions quickly and cheaply?
  • 3. Who is Empowered Today?  In 2016 IDC, (International Data Corporation), estimated that approximately 21 Million people out of the 7 billion on the planet could develop code.  That means only 1 in every 333 people can program any part of a computer.  The technologies they are using are so complicated that each of them can usually only develop a small part of a complete solution.  As today’s development languages are very detailed, even that small part takes a lot of time and effort to construct.  The skills are so hard to learn that these individuals usually don’t have a wealth of experience in other trades or roles.  This means that a small army of analysts are necessary to help them understand how to build a solution that will meet the needs of their customer.  It is clear that big changes are needed if we are to empower people to fully utilise the technology at their disposal.
  • 4. Onwards & Upwards  JohnVincentAtanasoff invented Digital, (Binary) Computing in the 1930’s. If you wanted to program a computer to add two numbers together and remember the answer you had to set at least 112 individual bits or instructions.  In the 1940’s various pioneers worked to simplify this and in 1951 Maurice Wilkes inventedAssembly language allowing the same thing to be achieved with 4 instructions.  In 1954 John Backus invented the first ‘high level’ computing language, (Fortran), which could add two numbers together with a single instruction.  In the Mid 1970’s SQL, (StructuredQuery Language), was invented by Donald Chamberlin allowing large groups of numbers or information to be processed with a single instruction, unfortunately this approach was only ever applied to database development.  These are examples of the four main generations of programming languages developed to date.  This progression was based on a simple idea: “As the language gets simpler – it gets easier, cheaper and quicker to achieve more”  Since the 1970’s the new languages developed have become more complex with each release.We appear to have moved backwards.
  • 5. An End to Advancement  In the mid 1990’s a major shift in thinking occurred.  I.T companies began to realise that their profits were not being generated from the software itself but from the services they could offer around that software.  Further simplification was not in their commercial best interests, if everyone could do anything then how would they sell technical services?  Marketing teams began driving technical product direction away from simplicity and a new range of complex technologies were born:  Microsoft abandoned its Market leading Visual Basic language and began work on the far more complicated and lower level .Net suite.  James Gosling at Sun Microsystems developed Java – a new low level language that tried to offer cross platform portability, (a promise that was never really fulfilled).  Since 1996 these have become the dominant development languages for Business applications.  When Apple released its revolutionary iPhone in 2007, it could only be programmed with a version of the C++ language which was invented by Bjarne Stroustrup in 1979 and was even more complicated than Java and .Net.  So our relationship with computers stopped improving in the mid 1990’s, and has actually deteriorated since.  Today it is more difficult and expensive to develop, deploy and operate a business application than it has ever been.
  • 6. So What’s the Problem?  Surely we’re all quite happy? – After all, many Billion Dollar industries are based on slow, complex coding technologies and the implications of their use.  However, these complex technologies mean that:  Technology almost always changes more slowly than businesses need it to, setting the pace at which organisations can evolve  Massive change is almost impossible to deliver, compounding complexity and cost across large systems quickly stops them being viable  It is so difficult to program a computer that only a tiny percentage of the population can do it, the rest can only use them.  Our needs are growing:  People are getting used to the power Applications can give them and their expectations are changing, they want their large institutions to be Digitally enabled, (Government, Health Services etc). Attempts to do this have been pitiful at best and have often failed.  The Internet of Things, (IoT), is rapidly multiplying the number of programmable devices on the planet, and there aren’t anywhere near enough programmers to meet the demand this is generating.  This excessive complexity leads to high levels of inefficiency which wastes resources, this is no longer ecologically tolerable.  There has been a long trail of projects that have failed because they were so complicated they were unmanageable.  Solutions are so complex that it is impossible to secure them, criminals have only recently woken up to how easy and lucrative Cybercrime is but the Genie is now most definitely out of the bottle.  In Short - we have squeezed every last drop of capability out of complex coding, now we need something more powerful.
  • 7. OmniFabric – The Next Step  We wanted to invent a new kind of programming conversation.  We wanted a command structure so simple that it could be learned and remembered in moments.  We wanted a flow based graphical interface so that the function of a program would be quick and easy to understand.  We wanted the build tools to be internet based so that no installation was required and they would be available from anywhere in the world.  We wanted powerful search tools to help Builders locate functionality quickly and easily  We wanted names and descriptions to be in proper sentences, to make it quick and easy to understand the role of each item.  We wanted a clear and easy way to handle variables, arguments and errors, eliminating many of the most common mistakes in programming.  We wanted 3rd parties to be able to add their own functionality to the platform quickly and cheaply.  We wanted an interactive browser-based debugger that would allow Builders to diagnose and repair solutions from anywhere in the world in real-time.  We wanted a build environment that could handle content and assets as well as programs  We wanted programs that could move from machine to machine, removing the need to build separate integration technology.  We wanted integration, threading and clustering to be handled with a few simple instructions.  We wanted programs to be capable of modifying their own operation during execution.  We wanted a language so simple and quick, that it would eventually be possible to program it with a Joystick. So that’s what we built
  • 8. Today’s Languages vs OmniFabric  Java,VB .Net and OmniFabric can all be used to develop solutions:  VB .Net has 224 significant words or phrases that control program flow or take an action.  Java has 50.  OmniFabric has 5.  Java and VB require complex integration components to talk between platforms.  OmniFabric doesn’t.  Java and Visual Basic programs appear as densely populated lists of complex text.  OmniFabric Agents look like a chart.  Java has to be modified to move between different devices and only runs on a few platforms  Visual Basic only runs on Microsoft supported platforms  OmniFabric runs on most major platforms without any modification at all.  Visual Basic and Java Solutions are developed, tested and deployed as hundreds or sometimes thousands of separate files  OmniFabric Personalities are created, tested and deployed as a single file.  Visual Basic and Java solutions have to be installed and configured  OmniFabric Personalities just have to be copied to the target platform Which is more powerful? Agent Execute Agents Data Work with Information or Assets, (Images, Videos etc). Calculate Do Anything Mathematical. Decide Make Decisions. Action Make Things Happen.
  • 9. A Simple Comparison – Building a Web Server  The current version of the popular and powerful Apache Web Server has slightly under 2 million lines of code in it.  This enables it to:  Receive Requests and Return Web components  Encrypt Connections  Process Cookies  Process HTTP Headers  Support Identification and Access Control  Integrate with Back-End Systems, application servers and databases  Work in clusters and handle threading properly to enable scalability and fast performance  Log Activity & Handle Errors  The code has been developed and refined by thousands of developers over many years  The equivalent functionality offered in OmniFabric has 187 Steps in it.  With a little training it can be built in a few days.  For those who don’t understand how a web server works or don’t have time for training, a template exists that will create a Web Server for them in 4 clicks, They can then extend this to create any kind of application they want.  An example of the main Web Server Agent is shown to the right.  If this OmniFabric Web Server is developed on Windows or Unix then copied to an iPhone or Android phone it will function perfectly without any further changes
  • 10. So Where Does This Leave Us?  Before OmniFabric, a whole team of technical experts were needed to build and deploy Web Applications.  Now anybody can do it.  Before OmniFabric, Web applications needed to run on powerful computers  Now they can run on a phone or even a wristwatch  Before OmniFabric, Applications took forever to develop.  Now many can be up and running in minutes  Before OmniFabric, solutions needed to be documented to be supportable  Now they document themselves  Before OmniFabric, it took months to learn basic programming  Now it takes hours  Before OmniFabric, solutions had to be developed on the platform they would run on  Now they can be developed on any platform and run on any other  Before OmniFabric, solutions had to be debugged offline  Now problems can be diagnosed on the live platform in real time from anywhere in the world  Now Everyone is a Programmer! Do you feel powerful yet?
  • 11. Into the Future  If we are to survive and thrive as a species then we have some huge challenges in front of us:  We have to either stop destroying our planet or get off it  We have to find a way to generate power plentifully, cheaply and cleanly  We have to establish a fairer system of global government and resource distribution  We have to find a way to synthetically respond to the evolving Viral and Bacterial landscape  We have to find a way to restart our own evolution  To achieve all of the above we have to better understand the universe that we live in  For all of these challenges our own intelligence and tenacity can only take us so far.  Technology will be the way that we enhance our ability to solve all of these problems, but to do that we must advance.  We must enable people to achieve more with the technology that they have.  We need a simpler solution that fully realises the power of that technology.  There are 7 billion amazing and creative individuals on our planet, when they are all capable of using small computers to realise big ideas, will there be anything we can’t achieve?
  • 12. Take the Next Step…..Take the Next Step…  Contact us at OmniCommand Ltd for a demonstration of OmniFabric technology.  The future beckons, and it’s looking brighter all the time….