Much Ado About Me and ZPC

My technology career began when I took a job as a software documentation specialist at a computer company in Salt Lake City that used APL to develop applications. Actually, my interest pre-dates that by several years but that was my first real foray into the world of technology.

I’ve written several dozen books on computers and high technology including a couple of best-sellers and some real clinkers. Along the way I’ve developed a few applications of my own, become a middling programmer and a better system designer, and wrestled the Web to the ground.

For at least 15 years and perhaps longer, I’ve been thinking, writing and talking about my dream of the day when I could travel without carrying a computer with me, a notion that grew over time into the phrase “zero-pound computing.” I thought I had coined that phrase but I didn’t claim it because who knows who else might have had the same idea and perhaps just not been vocal about it in the same places I was hanging out at the time.

I only found two references online to the term. One was a hint of the notion (a Gartner guy used the phrase “zero-pound laptop” in this article). Unfortunately, the other attribution was to someone who was more famous in a bigger pond and may pre-date my earliest use of the term. According to this article, Marc Andreessen used the precise phrase “zero-pound computer” in describing the Web some time in the late 1990’s. I can’t document my use of it earlier than that and although I was unaware of his usage of the term when I used it, fair’s fair. So I’ll bow to his creativity and get on with my life.

Of course, who made up the term doesn’t matter all that much. I’ve got the domain name and that’s what ultimately counts in the Web world.

In the past few months, the ZPC space has heated up a good bit with Microsoft deciding it was time to acknowledge the Web in ways other than giving away a crappy, standards-resistant browser just to choke the life out of what was once a great company, Google getting into the biz in a big way, and some very interesting and creative product development by some smaller companies. So I decided it was time to nail up a shingle and stake my claim to having some knowledge and expertise — and the accompanying barrage of informed opinion — on this rapidly evolving and clearly important space. I plan over the next few weeks and months to provide a lot of information and links here, many opinions, product evaluations, and perspectives. I will also likely begin taking on consulting clients interested in this topic.

I hope you enjoy this blog. You can read my opinions about other subjects (other tech, sports, politics, spirituality, and miscellaneous stuff that just grabs my attention) at my main blog.

Drop me an email at zpc at shafermedia dot com if you want to chat further.