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GCN Home > 10/07/02 issue

Net guru: Encrypt everything

By Susan M. Menke, GCN Staff

Ray Ozzie believes in shared workspaces. The inventor of Lotus Notes collaboration software founded Groove Networks Inc. in 1997 because server-based architectures “fundamentally could not address the dynamic collaboration requirements of a decentralized business environment.”

Ozzie has had a hand in groundbreaking applications, including Lotus 1-2-3 and VisiCalc. His current Groove Workspace software can extend collaboration services through enterprise firewalls.

“We have just begun to see the wide deployment of PCs and e-mail in the last five years,” Ozzie said. “Imagine where things are going to be in 10, 20, 30 years. On the positive side, how will this affect our lives? On the negative side, how will our enemies use it against us?” The crucial skill, he said, will be to master networking technology “more effectively than our enemies.”

A University of Illinois computer science graduate, Ozzie worked in the 1970s as a systems programmer on the university’s PLATO shared-learning system. He has said he is “haunted by concepts rooted in online community that I experienced at PLATO.”

GCN chief technology editor Susan M. Menke interviewed Ozzie by telephone from his Beverly, Mass., office.

GCN: What are the most important technology breakthroughs of the last two decades?

OZZIE: People tend to think of the personal technologies—PCs and e-mail—but they can also become a burden. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got too many PCs and too much information to deal with on a daily basis.

We’re at the beginning of what will be a hundred—a thousand years—of the Internet as a utility, a pipe. We’re just at the beginning of learning to use it effectively to communicate.

We’re stumbling a little right now. Maybe it’ll be our kids or our kids’ kids who have the rhythm down so that they can have a life and use technology, too.

There’s ample opportunity to connect, but we need ample opportunity to disconnect. Mobile technologies let you disconnect yet continue working. The most challenging thing is finding the right balance between being highly responsive to people’s expectations and not being overwhelmed by information.

More news on related topics: IT Infrastructure, Knowledge Management, Executive Center



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