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I'm talking about developing cool technology and building a massive multi-national hi-tech corporation from humble beginnings on a kitchen table or in a suburban garage.

But what's happened?

Where are the new HPs, Apples and Microsofts?

Has this business model now failed? Has the little guy with a great idea and nothing but sweat equity been relegated to become nothing but a few paragraphs in our history books?

I sure hope not, but I'm finding it hard to believe that the little-guy has a chance in today's hi-tech world.

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A few decades ago, the biggest problem faced by "the little guy" was one of marketing. Even if s/he came up with a revolutionary mousetrap that was going to make all others redundant, the cost of marketing that product was astronomical.

Thanks to the internet however, the cost of marketing a new product has never been lower -- if you know what you're doing.

Unfortunately, the problem is that "modern" technology is now so complex it is virtually impossible to engage in any serious research or product development without a lot of money, sophisticated equipment and manpower.

Sure, you can sit down and try to write a newer, better, faster, more feature-laden word-processor than MS Word -- but such applications are now so very complex that by the time an individual had finished and tested the product, it would already be out of date.

Likewise, you're probably not going to make any breakthroughs in the area of bioengineering without a whole host of expensive gear such as DNA sequencers, and other gizmos. These are not the sort of thing you'll find on the average kitchen table or even in the occasional suburban garage.

Now this is a big shame.

Why?

Well, history has repeatedly shown us that the very best new ideas and innovations often come from an individual or very small team who have worked without the burden of a large corporate bureaucracy weighing them down.

Just look at the microcomputer.. If it had been left up to IBM to harness the power of the (then) new microprocessor, the PC as we know it would never have seen the light of day.

IBM viewed the microprocessor as little more than a curiosity -- in fact a decidedly hostile attitude towards these "toy" computers was widespread within Big Blue's halls of power.

It comes as no surprise therefore to learn that the original PC was developed in secret by a very small team of engineers who had a miniscule budget and, even once it was completed, the machine was regarded with a strong measure of contempt by IBM's management.

If it weren't for the fact that other smaller, more innovative companies (led by Apple) had already created a new market that threatened IBM's mainstream business, the IBM-PC would have simply been a minor product destined to be used as little more than a "slightly more intelligent" terminal to its mainframes.

Perhaps the corporatisation of hi-tech explains why there are so very few really exciting new ideas being developed into full-blown products.

While there may be many flash new cellphones with PXT, internet and other fancy bells and whistles, and while things such as wireless, DSL etc continue to "evolve", the modern ITC marketplace simply doesn't have the *buzz* that it had back in the early 1980's.

VisiCalc, Electric Pencil, the original Adventure game, the Sinclair ZX80, The Apple II -- these were all breakthrough products born from very humble beginnings -- yet significantly reshaped the ITC marketplace.

Are ITC workers now destined to be little more than a small cog in a big wheel? Will the halcyon days of excitement, thrills and rewards that accompanied the ability to change the world from your kitchen table ever be seen again?

I sure hope so -- but I'm not holding my breath.

In fact, I believe that the role of the lone kitchen table has now been replaced by the Open Source movement, something that now sees thousands of kitchen tables networked together and working in concert to produce cool software.

Unfortunately, even this approach still suffers from a degree of corporatisation insomuch as it lacks the spark of innovation that is strongest when a project is driven and developed by a single person working with a strong focus. Still, it's better than nothing.

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A big thanks to Managed Internet Solutions for offering to provide this service.

You can access the new forums over at aardvarkforums.co.nz

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