Preface

I greatly enjoy hearing what people have to say about the work they do, and the ideas they have. I also like to hear people make predictions about technology because it helps me reach beyond my own thoughts. David Strom, as you will see from this interview, is a very sharp fellow with plenty of ideas and predictions. His breadth of knowledge is matched only by his ability to articulate his thoughts. You'll see that he understands the power of internet, portable devices, and broadband. In a nutshell, this is one of those interviews that is just plain interesting. And, he focuses on usability and simplicity. Excellent!   -- John S. Rhodes

The Internet and Networks

What is a network? What is a network product?

A network is a group of connected computers. A network product is some application, either hardware or software or both, that runs across these connected computers and makes use of multiple computers in some interesting ways. 

How can the quality of a network product be improved? What are your core recommendations?

My focus is on usability and simplicity. Today most corporate Information System professionals don't have lots of time to fool around with something new: they have a hard enough time keeping what systems they have running and upgraded. And all of us don't want to deal with wading through software manuals to find out an answer to how to use some application. I usually recommend that product vendors need to reduce menu and command confusion, eliminate configuration steps, and test their products on a wider array of operating systems and end user conditions to improve their products. 

By your definition, is the Internet simply a network or is it something more? 

The Internet is more than just a network, it is the mother of all networks. Because of its global reach, it provides a basic pathway to connect millions of people and the basis for building some very powerful applications. We tend to take the Internet for granted now, given that over 20 million people have Internet access through AOL and millions more through various other service providers, but less than ten years ago it was illegal for corporations and individuals to have Internet connections! And back then one could obtain a domain name for free -- now people are selling them for millions of dollars! What a world we live in. 

The Future

How will portable devices be used in the future? What are the advantages and disadvantages for users? Do people really want to be wired all the time? 

I think we are just beginning to see the potential for portable computing devices with the latest crop of screen phones and Palm-like things out there. There are a number of people working on adding applications to the Palm platform that are just ground-breaking things and we'll see more of that in coming months and years. The advantages are always being connected and being able to get messages and run applications no matter where you are. But that is also a drawback. There isn't any down time anymore. I can send and receive email from my kitchen 24 hours a day (and coincidentally, where I am typing the answers to your questions now) -- the temptation to be always working is a hard one for some people to deal with. I think people don't want to be continuously wired, but they are also frustrated when they travel how hard it is to stay in touch. Witness the number of times you are on the road and miss getting an important fax at your hotel, or need to receive a huge attachment via email but only have a 28.8 modem and it takes an hour to download. So we still need to see improvements in roaming and remote computing. 

What are the major broadband issues? How does broadband impact users? How will the major issues get resolved? 

Broadband does more than just speed up the connection between you and the rest of the Internet -- it allows for new and interesting applications given that more people will be continuously connected. For example, I used to look for a movie in the Friday section of my newspaper. Now I just have a customized Yahoo Movies page with the show times, that is running on my PC all the time. But broadband isn't always available and some of the Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) products are still too difficult for ordinary people to order and deal with to get installed. Eventually, these things will be resolved by better technologies and easier installation programs, but we are still a few years away from this. My DSL line in my office, for example, was having problems and it took me weeks to get it resolved. That sort of thing is unacceptable for the general public and shows that we are still in the early stages for broadband. 

Over the last couple of years the web has become more commercial. Do you feel that companies have more control over the web now? What are the issues?

I think that no one has "control" over the web anymore. Certainly it has become more commercial. We used to think it odd when we saw a URL (http .) on bus shelters and billboards: now almost half the radio and TV ads and a quarter of the Super Bowl ads are for "dot com" companies! The issues are how can vendors continue to evolve the web and add applications that make use of web servers and browsers in ways that will be useful and workable. Back five or six years ago, when the web was getting started, we had many different companies developing the basic web infrastructure -- now we have essentially two companies making browsers and servers (AOL/Netscape and Microsoft) and one additional source for server software (Apache). Apache is an interesting case because it isn't a "company" in the sense that it is a loose collection of individuals writing code and they continue to match the  features and capabilities of Microsoft's and Netscape's server applications. 

What is the potential of the internet? What is possible? Further, what do you expect we will achieve in the next couple of years?

I think we are just beginning to see the potential for the Internet these days. Anything is possible. I think the major advances still to come are in speech recognition. While many of us are good typists, there is a whole generation of people who aren't and could really benefit from being able to talk to their computers. For the next couple of years, we will continue to see lots of innovation particularly in terms of web-based and email applications. And while "personalization" is a big buzz word now, I do think that being able to customize your view of the Internet has huge potential. 

Behind the Scenes at David Strom, Inc. 

Who are you? What is your background? 

I am a consultant and writer who has been in this industry for close to 20 years. I got my start working for the US Government setting up one of the first Information Centers back in 1982 to help its employees learn about and use the early microcomputers such as the IBM PC, the Apple II and others. Then I went to live in LA for a few years doing the same thing for Transamerica Insurance and support several thousand desktop PC users. From there I went into journalism and worked at PC Week and then set up the magazine Network Computing and hired its first staff. I have been on my own for the past seven years and continue to write a great deal as well as travel around the world speaking and lecturing on various networking and Internet topics such as eCommerce, Internet security, and email. 

What does David Strom, Inc. offer to companies and organizations? What are your core strengths and competencies? 

I do several things. First, I write many freelance articles for a number of trade magazines, including Computerworld, Network World, Internet World, and others. I also publish my own weekly series of essays called Web Informant, which come out via email and on my web site, for the past several years. Now everyone has their own newsletter, but I have to say that I have enjoyed doing these essays and have a nice following with them. Finally, I do consulting to computer hardware and software vendors, to help them market and improve their products. My core competency is being able to view a product from several different angles: user, engineer, marketing person, journalist, executive, and being able to understand the dynamics involved in putting together a product that will satisfy everyone's needs. I am also on a number of corporate advisory boards to do this sort of thing as well. 

Wrap Up

What are your favorite books? What are some of your favorite web sites? 

For a list of some book recommendations, see http://strom.com/awards/165.html. Some of my more-frequented web sites include Yahoo -- they have a great deal of good content in many areas. I use Google for more specific searching, Amazon.com for books and CDs, and eGroups for distributing my Web Informant. 

Tell us briefly about your Internet Messaging book please. Do you have sample chapters or excerpts available? 

The book is called Internet Messaging and has been out for about 18 months. It contains very practical information for what a corporate email user needs to know to become productive and get work done with email, such as how to decode attachments, set up filters to reduce the amount of inbox clutter, and how to do these tasks with common email software from Microsoft, Netscape and others. I wrote it with Marshall Rose, who is one of the most brilliant people I have ever known. Marshall wrote the specifications for the original Internet email protocols many years ago and continues to be quite active in various Internet companies. There are excerpts available on my web site, http://strom.com/email. 

Final thoughts? Shameless plugs? What should every person remember about David Strom or this interview? 

Well, my life is all on the web, so if you want to know more about me, take a look at my web site.

David, thank you for sharing your thoughts with us.

What next?

• Have you heard about the WebWord.com Guru Interviews E-book? (Click here for more)

• Recommend this interview to a friend or colleague.

• If you want usability news, tips, and tricks, or if you want to know when new interviews go online, subscribe to the WebWord.com Usability Newsletter!