The barbarians are evidently at the gates. Once the stronghold of proprietary systems, Comdex Enterprise SF is becoming a den of open source software and internet standards. Yesterday it was a panel discussion on Linux (see separate story). Today Platinum Technology Inc CEO Andrew Flip Filipowski used his keynote to flog the virtues of Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) to the assembled chief information officers. As the new owner of SGI’s Cosmo Software division as well as the parent of VRML pioneer Intervista, Platinum needs to persuade users as well as investors that VRML is not just for kids any more. Flip began by describing a world without the net as a violent, post-apocalyptic landscape where men will secure their safety and that of their loved ones only through the barrel of a gun. To avert that catastrophe, he warned, companies had to make sure that their internet systems did not go down. In other words, ultimate responsibility for Western Civilization now rests with CIOs. The survival of many will depend on the vision and leadership of the management of corporations today, Flip concluded. How to implement that vision and leadership? Flip argued that the answer lies in the interface. Children raised with interactivity from their earliest youth will be more demanding of software than the passive, TV-fed generation producing applications today. The Nintendo 64 generation will want to have to catch their payroll check from a bouncing hedgehog on the fly, he said, as the bandwidth issue gets solved, get ready. More seriously, Flip cautioned the IT directors in the audience to keep one eye on company strategy and the other on their future employment prospects. You want a resume that sings? he asked, think security, privacy, entertainment and 3D. Think heavy doses of VRML. Enterprise software companies will legitimate the use of technologies like these. That is to say, Platinum intends to legitimate VRML, given half a chance.
