Half full or half empty?

Despite my recent focus on Enterprise 2.0 and so on, I'm still concerned with the issue of IT and its broader impact on organisations, like this report and comment from Andrew McAfee on a speech by Robert J. Gordon about IT and productivity (or rather the lack of).

Gordon's thoughts are worth thinking about because he has changed his view on the contribution of IT to productivity from a positive view to a more pessimistic stance. McAfee summarises Gordon, saying "His broad point was that IT definitely delivered a productivity jolt to the US economy in the late 1990s, but that that era is past."

McAfee is still generally optimistic, believing that "Like previous general purpose technologies IT is having a deeply transformative effect, which will take many years to play out completely."

I also wonder if perhaps we are a little too focused on productivity and instead should also look for opportunity value created by IT.

 

Technorati tags: Andrew McAfee, Robert J. Gordon, IT, Productivity