Book Review:

Technology Revolution

Ramifications and Opportunities

By Kaiman Lee, PhD

Reviewed by Richard N. Stover

 
Late last year BY2K (Before Y2K), I met Kaiman at one of the many trade shows that we have been crisscrossing for too many years. "Please review my book," he said. "Of course," I said, thinking back over the 25 + years that I have known this interesting and entertaining fellow (we were mere children when we first met!) "Can I take it with me," I said, thinking that I had several hours on a plane that might be used with his book. Then he proceeded to pull out this two-volume set, and I had to sheepishly ask him to send it to me (my bag was already overflowing with a laptop and countless pieces of literature that others had already thrust upon me.)
 
When it arrived, I kept staring at it. "Technology Revolution…heck, I keep hearing that every day. It's all around us. I keep experiencing it every day," I mused. "What can it possibly tell me?" Then I remembered a conversation I had with Kaiman during another time…and another show. A time when he had explained to me his concept of Technology Executive Briefings; "they will be short, well illustrated and to the point," he explained. But that was several years ago and I had almost forgotten…but voila…here it was! But two volumes of it?
 
Then I started reading…"man this is great! He's got some technical terms in here that I have never heard of. And clever cartoons to support each page! How did he do it? So that's what he has been doing these past years since we first talked about this project."
 
In short, this is the ultimate executive briefing on everything that you need to know about information technology! And that should be every executive's focus to make his or her company successful. The book is extremely easy to read and to look up. Just pick your subject and go to that section of the book. Each term will take you no more than a minute or two to read. Does one need to memorize all of these? Of course not! But this two-volume set will serve as an excellent reference while this whole concept of e-commerce shakes out. It definitely belongs on your reference shelf!
 
Excerpts:
 
Soviet central planning failed to create a thriving economy. Perhaps the lack of such central planning is one of the key reasons why the internet is so successful.
 
 Internet brings technology's biggest impact: connectivity. The connectivity is based on universal network access to knowledge and people.
 
Conncetivity will change the way we work and live. It will have an effect on culture that is really hard to estimate.
 
The basic tenet of network security has been to just keep the outsiders out. But with virtual private networks (VPN), you let the outsiders in.
 
Security Measures: as basic internet access has evolved into e-business many companies have hosted applications and services in the "demilitarized zone," or DMZ, between internal and external firewalls.
 
The proxy server firewall (also called proxy firewall, application layer gateway, or gateway firewall) acts as an intermediary or buffer for user requests.
 
Richard N. Stover is Principal Analyst, Enterprise Resources Management, an industry research and strategic consulting organization, and an Associate Publisher of Document Management Online (www.docmanage.com). He can be reached at ermdm@aol.com.