Domino like the Constitution?07:31:32 AMOkay, I admit it: I'm a geek, and not just a little bit biased about Lotus Notes and Domino, 
but I was thinking the other day about the amazing foresight of Ray Ozzie and crowd when they originally drew out the blueprint for Lotus Notes.
No, really, think about it. This is a comprehensive bit of software originally released in 1989 (coding started in about 1982) which has still (a) never really been challenged with a competitive product and (b) is completely backward compatible. In other words, if you built something in, say, version 2 (that would be in the 1991 timeframe), it will still work in release 7 here in the new millenium. Consider that upgrading to the latest version of Microsoft Exchange requires an entire rip-and-replace of even the most recent prior version and you'll begin to appreciate the magnitude of this.
What's more amazing is the original seven or eight data types ("notes" internally) defined way back in the stone age of computerization (early 1980's) are still what are bascially under the hood. Consider what a great web tool Domino is today and then realize there wasn't an Internet when they started building this. Well, OK, there was the beginning of it for a few uber-Geeks, but NOBODY knew about it. Heck, back when they laid this all out, there weren't networks in offices.
And yet, the same structure is valid today for an incredibly more complex and comprehensive set of features.
Pondering this yesterday made me think of the US Constitution. Here we are with a document pounded out by a bunch of revolutionaries that somehow managed to set down the basic precepts of a government in such a way that almost 230 years later it is still as relavant and viable as it was then.
It's incredible, really. Both of them.
