Ghost of Midnight

… about neighbors, community and Front Porch Forum

“Good Enough” Technology

Posted on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 by No comments yet

Yelvington.com writes today about “good enough” technology…

Truly disruptive technologies tend to enter the environment at the low end, not the high end.

To incumbents, they may at first appear to be a joke. Two examples from the world of database technology serve as examples.

He lists a couple of examples, including…

The first is MySQL, a free relational database server that began as a fairly primitive tool.

“Real” database administrators — the guys with Oracle DBA certifications — sneered at it. A toy fit only for amateurs, it nevertheless was “good enough” to enable thousands of new Web-based applications (including the software that runs this blog). As it improved, it climbed the ladder of quality and eventually became the data engine behind Google AdSense, a truly disruptive technology.

This reminds me of the reaction we sometimes get from “experts” to Front Porch Forum.  They hear all the hubbub from our members and visit the site expecting more flash.  But it’s not new space-age technology, nor is it festooned with all the latest bells and whistles.  It IS disrupting things in our one pilot area though.

Posted in: Front Porch Forum, Local Online


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