Hype accompanies technology innovation like a shadow. When the inventor of fire was touting its benefits ("Makes mastodon meat more tender!" "Creates a romantic ambiance!"), there was no doubt someone at the back of the cave shouting, "Ach, it's all just hype!"
Unfortunately for the critics of hype, people tend to remember only when they are hilariously wrong. A 1995 Newsweek
article titled "The Internet? Bah!" mocked the proponents of the web: "Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Intenet. Uh, sure." Borders certainly wishes
that prediction had been accurate.
The accelerating pace of change creates ever new opportunities for the hype police to look foolish, faster. Facebook will suffocate in its
superficiality. The iPad will be an embarrassing
flop. Twitter is just plain
stupid.
In the software realm, hype is often associated, or even equated, with marketing. In one sense, it's true that marketing is hype (and I say this as a former software marketer). Vendor claims about the benefits of their products
are almost always unrealistic -- because they are usually based on abstract, imaginary, and ideal use cases. The challenge for any vendor selection process is (in principle) to separate the abstract scenario from the real benefits achievable given your specific business environment and goals. POST is a tool to help you determine and measure that delta.
Read more More from the Forrester Blog For Information & Knowledge Management Professionals... 
19th March 2011, 01:31 AM
Got Hype? You need POST 
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