The accidental tech pundit

Two years ago, Nicholas Carr was an IT outsider with a provocative take on the future that unexpectedly touched off an industry firestorm.

Today, he's a big-time insider, the quintessential disruptive force, challenging the thinking of vendors, CEOs and IT managers alike, and using the history of American business to explain the economics of IT operations.

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Carr, to refresh memories, is the author of "IT Doesn't Matter" a 2003 Harvard Business Review article that created a major uproar with its conclusion that IT was no longer a point of competitive advantage at a business level.

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer called it "hogwash." Former HP chief Carly Fiorina said Carr was "dead wrong."

One contingent contended the article was a conspiracy led by a group of rich individuals bent on keeping down IT wages. Others missed the point completely, thinking the article was critical of the technology itself.

Rather than disappearing as a forgotten flashpoint, Carr today is part of the industry, sharing his viewpoints on the speaking circuit. It's a gig, he says, that has become his career and primary source of income. He has given presentations or made public appearances around the globe nearly three times a month for the past year. And the next year probably won't be much different.

"There is no question that he is part of the industry," says Jeffrey Kaplan, managing director of consulting firm Thinkstrategies, who has written several commentaries on Carr's articles.

"He provides a useful function for this industry and continues to do so," Kaplan says. "Whether we like it or not, his views are being heard. There are a lot of corporate leaders paying to hear him talk."

Carr's latest article, "The End of Corporate Computing," appeared last month in the MIT Sloan Management Review. So far it has not become a lightning rod, with its conclusion that IT is shifting from an asset companies own to a service they purchase, that is, utility computing. Carr says it's an inevitable transition over the next 10 to 20 years.

His Web site, nicholasgcarr.com, includes an online newsletter featuring eye-catching headlines for Carr articles such as "Sons of Dracula," which likens enterprise software companies to the fictional blood-sucker, and "Moore's Law, RIP."

The site also carries a running list of links to commentary and criticism surrounding his IT analysis, a sort of blog forerunner that Carr created as the "IT Doesn't Matter" debate took on a life of its own.

"If you did a calculation of the ratio of the number of pages of the article [eight] to the number of pages written about it, it would be some astronomical number," he says with a chuckle.

Two months ago, curiosity led him to launch his own blog, Rough Type, where he delves into the issues and milestones, which from his perspective, foreshadow the fate of corporations and their IT departments.

"I don't think it's a destination site on the Web yet," he deadpans.