Digital: Boolean Rhapsody

The innovation files 4

Imagine running a company that takes care of the transportation of sheets of papers from A to B. Your business model is based on the stamps that you put in the top right corner. You sell these stamp and only transport sheets of paper that carry a mark. You give these marks funny colours and nice drawings, so people recognise them and even collect them. However, these sheets themselves are worthless. It’s the content on it that is valuable to people, and therefore they are willing to pay you for transport. Comfortably as you are, you lean back behind your desk and see money pouring in. After all, the sales of the stamps are higher than the costs of transportation. You light a cigar, pat yourself on the chest, imaging you are on top of the world. No, even better, you are the world. Then suddenly, a new service arrives on the scene as a luminous snake in the mist. His glooming piercing eyes look at you, ready to attack and drag you in a long slow torturous fight to the death. This new service sends the contents of the paper sheets electronically. It has instant delivery from A to B, and it is free. No stamps, no transportation costs! In 1971 the first email was sent by Ray Tomlinson and was considered to be the first killer app that made computer networking inevitable. As soon as the first digital service was released, it undermined the traditional way of doing…