automatisch

Zou het niet mooi zijn wanneer je je PC een aantal trefwoorden, een beschrijving van je gehoor en het doel van je verhaal gaf (en vooral hoe lang het mag duren). En dat er dan een kant en klare toespraak uit de printer zou rollen?

IBM, ooit bijgenaamd ‘Big Blue’ maar tegenwoordig wat minder groot en in Chinese handen, heeft precies zo’n apparaat ontwikkeld.

Een stukje geschiedenis van IBM v/h C-T-R van hun netstek:

In 1911, Charles F. Flint, a noted trust organizer, engineered the merger of Hollerith's Tabulating Machine Company with two others—Computing Scale Company of America and International Time Recording Company. The combined Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (C-T-R) manufactured and sold machinery ranging from commercial scales and industrial time recorders to meat and cheese slicers, along with tabulators and punched cards. In the years following World War I, C-T-R’s engineering and research staff developed new and improved mechanisms to meet the broadening needs of its customers. In 1920, the company introduced the lock autograph recorder, the first complete school time control system, and launched the Electric Accounting Machine. In 1921, the company acquired the business of the Ticketograph Company of Chicago, and certain patents and other property of the Peirce Accounting Machine Company. The Carroll Rotary Press was developed in 1924 to produce cards at high speed, and punched card capacity was doubled. The growth and extension of C-T-R's activities made the old name of the company too limited, and, on February 14, 1924, C-T-R's name was formally changed to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). By then, the company's business had expanded both geographically and functionally, including the completion of three manufacturing facilities in Europe.

De toepassing die ze bij IBM bedachten heet Writing Machine.

Hieronder volgt een gedeelte van een door de Writing Machine geproduceerde toespraak. Een staflid van IBM moest een inspirerende en motiverende speech geven van 40 minuten over e-business voor medewerkers van IBM-Slovenië. De automatische rede-schrijver bedacht o.a. het volgende (hij gaf zelfs aan wanneer de spreekster dramatische pauzes moest inlassen).

Mij is overigens niet bekend welke politici en staatslieden gebruik maken van de Writing Machine…

There is no doubt that, for industrial societies, we are currently undergoing a most fundamental and rapid transformation in the commercial landscape. It is presenting huge opportunities for brand new organizations, as well as the more flexible, established players. But at the same time, it represents a tremendous threat to those companies that are unable to adapt appropriately. And some of the biggest threats come directly from the technologies that are making the e-business revolution possible in the first place.

So, whilst it is clearly true that computer servers, for example, must form a strategic role in the new business processes of the 21st century, senior managers need to beware. The wrong technical decisions now could spell disaster in a very short time.

A company could, for example, lock itself into a technological infrastructure which may not be capable of meeting the flexibility and scalability demands of the New Economy. Or, if it becomes increasingly dependent upon the Internet as a source of revenue, it may at the same time become increasingly commercially vulnerable because its systems are not available enough of the time.

We cannot be sure the e-business revolution will automatically bring us success. All we know for certain is that we have to be able to respond. I find that business men and women across Europe increasingly agree with what IBM has been saying for nearly six years: “yes, e-business is real business — but it is fundamentally different business”.