Change is in the air

[Commentary] Finally, the network really is the computer. The real game changer is broadband. More than any development since the late 1990s, the proliferation of inexpensive high-speed Internet connections represents a profound structural shift in the computer business. Among other things, it promises to usher in an era in which network access becomes the equivalent of a global utility. Truth be told, the broadband rollout in this country has proceeded at a snail's pace. While nations like South Korea and Japan surged ahead, the U.S. dithered. The good news is that America's high-tech industry has hurdled most of the bureaucratic obstacles put in its way by a distracted federal government. When this build-out reaches a tipping point, what happens then? That remains an open debate, but one point already is beyond contestation: Most of the important software development work being done these days is almost exclusively focused around the network and network services.
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Charles Cooper]