When I was about three years old, my parents made a deal with me to trade in my pacifier with a Donkey Kong game. My dentists later had a lot of fun getting my teeth fixed, fortunately with some success, but at age 3, IT had entered in my life.
Later came the Commodore 64, then the Amiga 500 – and then the first Windows PC – with Norton as a secondary OS so I could run games I got from friends. Back then, getting to a computer shop was far from simple, and getting online was not available for common folks like me. The internet came much later into my life – I was 19 years old when I opened my first email account – Hotmail of course.
Office was always there though – I used it in high school, but only Word. I can’t even begin to say how much time I would have saved if we’d learned PowerPoint or Excel already when I was in school – or if OneNote had existed then.
What was central to my interest in IT then, was how IT connects people. Enables people. And how those connections foster ideas, actions, and new ways to get things done.
Before the rise of the internet, Star Trek fans, known as Trekkies would travel to conventions around the world to meet. But only the privileged could go, as those travels were expensive. With the internet came online fandoms. Suddenly people from around the world could connect on things they had in common. Not just the Trekkies, but everyone with shared hobbies, cultural backgrounds, and so on. Just look up “Indian Online Diaspora” online as an example, and you’ll find masses of online communities for Indians living around the world, sharing their cultural heritage.
Before, people had to riot together on the streets to be heard – today Internet polls and Facebook likes can force the hand of politicians and companies alike. Power through the people.
This convergence culture we are experiencing today, mixing online with offline, blending the borders between the private sphere and the public sphere, leads the way into how media, how the internet, how we communicate, work together and connect with each other, will look in the next 25 years. How we will work better together, find smarter solutions, and connect on new ideas that will revolutionize the future.
Thank you Bill Gates for daring to have a vision on putting a PC on every desk and fostering this revolution of people powered IT. Happy Birthday, Office!
Ein Gastbeitrag von Tanya Helene Christensen
Product Marketing Manager, Microsoft Office Division
#officeparty
25 Jahre: das entspricht einer Silberhochzeit, der Reifezeit eines sehr edlen Single-Malt-Whiskeys, zwei bis drei „Goldenen Generationen“ im Weltfußball, drei bis vier Bausparverträgen – und eben der Karriere eines der meistgenutzten Bürosoftwarepakete des Globus. Mit 25 Gastbeiträgen feiert Microsoft auf dem offiziellen Presseblog den großen Office-Geburtstag.
- - - -
Autoren-Information
Tanya Helene Christensen ist Product Marketing Managerin für Office bei Microsoft Deutschland. Die 36-jährige Dänin zog nach 5 Jahren bei Microsoft Dänemark im April 2014 nach Deutschland. Zu ihren wichtigsten Aufgaben zählen seither die Geschäftsfelder Consumer, SME und deutsche Bildungseinrichtung.