Forging The Future 7/30/10 — 11:12 UTC

We are calling our web log, Forging the Future, because that is the business we are all in “here’ at The IEUC.

Of course, for us, “here” is a state of mind, because it doesn’t make sense for us to try to package our quest as a drive to create yet another brick-and-mortar lab. One day, perhaps, we will enjoy a level of support that will make it feasible to build, rent, or lease such a physical plant in support of a residential program like that of the Stanta Fe Institute.

Indeed, it would unquestionably be a good thing to dedicate a substantial facility to furthering research into End User Computing, so there would be a neutral site at which visiting researchers could collaborate on such issues. But there are already labs a many chipping away at different facets of the technological problems facing End Users. The real problem lies in breaking down disciplinary boundaries and figuring out the best ways to put all the pieces together, and that won’t be happening any time soon at an established lab, since all of these organizations have a primary interest in maintaining support for their own site. This is why collaborations among such peer labs tend to fizzle out in a few years when most participants start to fear that the fruits of any initial success are disproportionately accruing to the host site. In other words if a distributed project is administered from Lab A, in time its partner Labs B, C, and D will fear that Lab A is getting more money and prestige from the project than they are so they will start to pull back and the project will die. This same dynamic also dooms most interdisciplinary and interdepartmental projects within a given institution.

Thus for now, we need to run a lean operation and channel our resources into Forging a non-threatening network of colleagues from all labs and requisite fields of endeavor who care about breaking this vicious cycle and are in a position to make things happen. Indeed, as we embark on our quest to reboot the computer sector and knit together the many critical strands of relevant research, our not being attached to an existing institution or trying to compete with any of them in the brick-and-mortar building game will be absolutely critical.

If and only if we can draw on public support from enlightened computer users like YOU, will we be able to do what others can’t and make it possible to leverage each of our supporters’ contributions and undertake the needed work that wouldn’t otherwise get funded.

Alas, there is a tremendous amount of inertia centered around maintaining today’s desktop computing platforms. Whole careers have been built around mastering the quirks of yesterday’s hardware and software. Decades old decisions based on then appropriate technology tradeoffs have become ossified into bad designs that make our lives miserable, but the risks of trying to make a clean break and offer a real alternative are too great to be undertaken in the commercial sector.

We all know that today’s operating systems are sources of endless frustration and that it doesn’t matter which one we are talking about in this regard. Apple’s OS X works smoothy out of box and looks gorgeous, but even if you are a single user using your machine in the total security of your own home, there is no way to escape being forced to “prove” your identity by retyping your password thousands of times over. Despite their rapidly improving user interfaces, the many flavors of Windows remain subject to constant worm and virus attacks that make them a security nightmare. Likewise, while Unix and Linux may well have the potential to do anything an end user could ask for, often at little or no cost, unlocking that potential requires a deep immersion in highly arcane knowledge much of which is grounded in historical accident. Moreover, none of these environments makes coherent use of the many advanced technologies and common sense insights accumulated since the dawn of the personal computing revolution.

But despite these clearly manifest and utterly pervasive failings, just image going to your friendly local bankers and asking for funding to start from scratch and design a real alternative to ALL of these platforms – not just some sexy looking veneer grafted on top of Linux or some other current offering, but a REAL alternative. We all know it is needed, but from a commercial standpoint it is untouchable. That is why we have formed The IEUC to do what needs to be done in the not-for-profit space.

We all need this to work. You need us to succeed. There is a silver bullet, and YOUR Support is it!

Greeting All,

This is the first entry in “Forging The Future”, the official web log of The Institute for End User Computing, Inc.

If you found our site through this page, it should be noted that The IEUC is a New York State not-for-profit corporation currently in the process of preparing to apply to The IRS for a Section 501(c)(3) federal tax exemption. We anticipate that this process will be completed by the end of the year.

Our charitable purpose is to advance the state of the art in information technology and advance the interests of End Users like you!

What is an End User? An End User is anyone and everyone using computers and related technologies as tools in their work or play. Indeed, even computer programmers are End Users of the tools they use to develop new programs, as are the developers of those tools when using other tools to develop them! Likewise, your next door neighbor, your son or daughter’s teacher, and your employer can all find themselves in the role of an End User as can bleeding edge technologists, liberal arts faculty members, and those brave patriots who put their lives on the line to man all levels of our homeland security infrastructure.

In short, all of us are directly or indirectly End Users of computing technology, but our needs often take a second place behind short term technological, economic, and marketing considerations. The problem is that up until now it hasn’t been anyone’s job to worry about The Big Picture and take a long term view of where we are and where we should be.

That is why we founded The Institute for End User Computing and made it our Job to look out for you and focus on doing The Right Thing rather than the fast and easy “Worse is Better” thing.

But The Institute is young and while we are truly gifted in terms of the brain trust that we can draw on, we are starting off on a shoestring budget. So we need your support!

If you’ve ever wanted to tear your computer off your desk and hurl it out a window or lob a brick through your screen in a fit of “Computer Rage”, stop complaining, and do something about it!

We know what needs to be done! We know who knows how to do it! But we need your financial support so we can fund them to do the work. After all, even the most public spirited and magnanimous providers of free and open source software need to put food on the table. So we need your donations so we will have the resources to employ them to build the next generation of tools to make your life easier, your employer more productive, our cyber infrastructure more secure, and just maybe indirectly change our information technology environment enough to one day save your job or even your life.

We are already hard at work in the trenches and hope to prove worthy of your generous support!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled commentary.