My first column for Tech Decisions was in the summer of 1999. It wasn't called Trends & Technology back then but the gist was the same: What is happening in technology and how those changes affect our lives and the way we do business.
In 1999 Y2K issues were occupying a great deal of our time. It was the last good time to be a COBOL programmer, although most of us were trying to hide that skill and leave all that legacy stuff behind. The Internet had arrived—Google was founded in 1998. Silicon Valley was booming and the dot-com bust was a year away. The harsh reality though was that the dot-com boom occurred a few years before business and technology were fully ready to embrace the Internet and e-Commerce. The bust was inevitable but the Internet promised years of interesting work for developers.
So where are we today vis-à-vis trends and technology? The emergence of the personal, general purpose device is the defining factor in the tech world today. Smart phones and tablets have transformed the way we interact with each other and the way we do business. Teenagers have never known a world without the Internet. They have always had access to a personal computer. For them a computer is not an enabling technology—it is a part of their life experience.
Recommended For You
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
