Arthur C. Clarke published 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968. Stanley Kubricks landmark film adaptation of that story was released the same year, the year in which Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assasinated. Neil Armstrong was just one year away from taking the first lunar stroll. In hindsight, its amazing how much weve learned in 34 years.

At the 1968 Joint Computer Conference, held in San Francisco, Douglas C. Engelbart of the Stanford Research Institute demonstrated a communication system comprised of a keyboard, keypad, mouse, and windows. He used a word processor and a hypertext system to perform remote, collaborative work with colleagues. In hindsightand given the extent to which the insurance industry continues to struggle with the same kinds of communication systemsits amazing how little weve learned in 34 years.

To illustrate the extent to which Engelbarts method for performing the remote, collaborative work of streamlining processes and automating transactions still give us fits, consider this: For close to 20 years, insurance agents have sought the development and adoption of single-entry, multiple company interface (SEMCI) for the transmittal of information. Theyve been encouraged by the rhetorical commitments of some carriers, although the business interests of those carriers may not be served by SEMCI. In any case, SEMCI has been neither accepted nor implemented industry-wide.