Application development over the last decades: increased but hidden costs

Over the last decades a few trends have been made visible within application development. Methodology is one of them, introducing a.o. RUP, Agile and XP. COTS and code generation is another, trying to reduce the number of errors by pushing back the human contact with code

Apart from benefits, there are concerns here.
Methodology has put more focus and the project and timely delivery itself, forgetting that an application only spends 20% in initial development, and 80% of its lifecycle in maintenance. The human factor has been greatly increased by these methodologies, mirroring the increased dynamics of business
On the other hand, software building has greatly decreased the human factor

Social integration: I = (NC)2

Social media integration is getting bigger and better these days.
LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Yammer, they're all interconnected somehow

From within Twitter, for example, you can update other social networks by using socalled hashtags. For instance, #fb will trigger Facebook, #in will update LinkedIn, and #yam will go into Yammer

Just the other day I saw a Tweet from @armano who was updating Twitter and LinkedIn at the same time: "Want to join Edelman?". A very clever move actually, as David was letting know his 23+K Twitter followers as well as his 500+ LinkedIn connections at the same time that his new company is looking for new people
(It was Michael Krempasky who started the tweet, but David was the first to spread it to LinkedIn simultaneously)

IT utility and Cloud. And why Salesforce.com is stuck

IT utility is a widespread misconception. Whenever we name utility, we think of our own utility: gas, water and electricity
We cement those into the walls, floors and ceilings of our house, and feel perfectly happy about that. Why?

Because they're boringly static products. Water nor gas nor electricity have changed in the last 50 years nor are they going to change in the coming 50 years. Redefining the meaning of static. And boring.
But, we don't have TV's, ovens or microwaves coming out of the wall. Nor phones, PC's, lamps, etcetera. Only the stuff that feeds them.

Now, over to IT utility. The more boring the IT, the better you can "Cloud It Out". Infra comes to mind,