On 1/9/21 10:19 PM, John Levine wrote:
We already have too much custom bespoke stuff for applications that aren't really all that unusual.
I've seen this particular handwaving argument too many times, always without any support, and have come to seriously question its validity.
I suspect that the argument is at least equally valid when flipped around - we are already too dependent on applications that aren't a great fit for what is needed, and either aren't adaptable to better suit our needs or are adaptable only at great expense. The tendency to adopt proprietary applications rather than "bespoke" ones paints us into corners, restricts our ability to change, increases our costs, and has a potential of siloing different kinds of information in ways that hamstring the ability to use them together. Indeed, this is _exactly_ what I see in every organization I work with that adopts commercial communications tools. (Slack is just one sad example.)
So basically, this kind of argument simply doesn't hold water without analysis.
Keith
