Three Major #Principles of #Technology #Innovations

Published on January 22, 2019

To Architects, Developers and thier Managers

#1 An Innovation may not harm its Consumers

#2 An Innovation may not harm its Owner(s)

#3 Disallow any exceptions from Principle #1 and Principle #2

Technology has reached such a point where people have to apply the rule created last century to nuclear power. Technologies such as IoT, Augmented Reality and some aspects of AI have potentials to become dangerous to people and we have to put them on a ‘human leash’. Here are just two examples for households and enterprises.

Example for a household. In London, UK, the water supply company has started to deploy “intelligent” water meters. While this is a great idea and innovation, the people in each household should make sure that the meters do not spy on them. If the meters count the amount of used water per month, it is one thing; if they count the amount of used water per hour daily, it is a totally different thing. Such measurement can show in near real-time a) a break in the water usage pattern; 2) a sharp drop in the use of water in the household for several days. Both cases constitute private information about the living habits of the household and indicate that the house is vacant. This is a “welcome” message for the robbery…

Example for a business/company. It has become very popular that the company’s IT uses foreign API for delivering the solutions required by the company business. This speeds up development and reduces time to market. Well, this would be highly appreciated by the business if it had a preliminary business contract with the API provider-company. If there is no such business contract in place, the company-consumer becomes dependent on the provider-company wish with no awareness of such dependency and with no control and mutual obligations. Thus, the provider-company can hang the company-consumer’s IT at any moment. Would any CEO allow such innovation? Any API that crosses jurisdiction or ownership boundaries is just a supplement, not a replacement, of the routine inter-business contracts; there no API Revolution or Economy – business-first remains in place.

Thus, People First, Technology Second!