A TRANSNATIONAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATES CRITIQUE

of "The Road Ahead" by Bill Gates

(Viking Press, New York, N.Y.)
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THE ROAD AHEAD: MICROSOFT'S INFORMATION HIGHWAY

It would seem accurate to describe Bill Gates' 1995 publication, The Road Ahead, as a product of Microsoft Corporation. Co-authored with Nathan Myhrwold and Peter Rinearson, packaged with an eye to market appeal and promoted by the Gates' Organization, this book was an immediate success. Gates' reputation in the world of "informatics", programming, computer design and general wizardry was apparently solid enough to result in a burst of enthusiasm among his supporters. Yet, from a literary or even substantive standpoint, this volume, 286 pages in length, leaves much to the imagination.

There seems no evidence to suggest that Gates' opus was not the creation of an inner- sanctum, sworn-to-secrecy committee within Microsoft. Occasionally, there are insights which seem personal, witty and quintessentially "Bill Gates" -- but the bland overlay and lukewarm prose would suggest more than just casual retouching, ghosting or collaboration. It was magnanimous of "billg" (Gates' universally recognized e-mail handle) to acknowledge, at least, that The Road Ahead was co-authored! The reader is left with the impression, at times, that Gates' personality and techno-charm have yielded to the "corporate-memoranda" of Myhrwold, or the journalistic flair of Rinearson.

So artificial is this volume that it was sold with an accompanying CD-ROM, as if to say, "Here is our corporate position on this, and our future plans for that...". The book has been considered a position-paper on development of Microsoft's software and technological innovations.

During a presentation to wealthy patrons and supporters at New York City's Temple Rodeph Sholom in early December 1995, shortly after his book's release, he shied away from recognizing that Netscape or Sun-Microsystems might be "in the running", and yet it is widely acknowledged that they may become industry leaders, surpassing Microsoft as easily as Microsoft submerged IBM in earlier years.

Indeed, Gates' prognostications seem to shy away from recognizing that anyone but Microsoft can lead the world toward his vision of computerized homes, vehicles, boats and offices. A cone of cybernetics will descend upon each of us, he predicts. We will be interconnected in all aspects of our lives. Music will flow around us as we walk from one room to the next in our homes. Lights will grow dim as we walk away from them, and will brighten as we walk toward them. We will be bathed in the glow of flickering monitors; in our palms will be hand-held computers.

Gates wants to transform the computer world as we know it, through expansion into emerging spheres of dominance. That a Harvard drop-out could harbor the tenacity of a man seemingly far more persevering is commendable. Gates' desire to transform and innovate stems from a perpetual Peter Pan overlay to his personality. He displays, on page three, a 1968 photo of himself at age 13, accompanied by Paul Allen, then 15, who became co-founder of Microsoft. Gates' obvious fascination with these machines began early. He tells us in boyish prose, "When I was a kid my image of computers was that they were very big and powerful. Banks had a bunch..." He traces his drama and his aspirations, in his "e-mail identity", a style which creates a persona, lulling us into acceptance of his vision of the future. The approach is mesmerizing, but lasts only for fragmentary moments, before lapsing into a professional tone of detachment and indifference. The reader absorbs the feeling that he or she is entering Gates' "cone of cyberspace", only to be tossed out into the Kleig Lighting of harsh corporate reality.

We move into the real heart of Gates' thinking, not when he speaks of hand-held computers, but when he describes how the market for such devices will be created. The real value of Gates' efforts is exposed in this section of his book, justifying the stiff $29.95 purchase price of The Road Ahead. How can we move from the Internet as it stands now, toward a personalization, in the lives of everyone, of this technology? Gates' reasoning presupposes, of course, that we will all feel comfortable with the presence of "cyberspace" in every aspect of our existence. In this sense, the book drifts perhaps from behavioral reality.

The text, in places, focuses annoyingly on the narrow business interests of Microsoft's immediate priorities. A rehashing of what we already know about the Information Highway is not of primordial concern to us. When mentioning education, he is stifling in his naivete, and when turning to the housewife he again stumbles into banality. "It will be a shopper's heaven...", we learn.

For a man worth countless billions, Bill Gates comes across as being more in love with his machines and his ethereal visions, than he does with humanity. He is clearly at the opposite end of the "authority-power-leadership" scale from, say, John Sununu or Ariel Sharon. His modesty and self-effacing timidity, surfacing throughout portions of this book, make the reader uneasy, because here is a man who has so drastically transformed Contemporary Society and yet who is still so innocently captivated by his own fantasies and enchantments. His fabulous wealth and power are being used in ways which are not yet clear, and this is disturbing to many specialists who wonder what markets his firm will create and where the emphasis will be placed in the next generation of virtual, interactive cyber- technology. We might have expected The Road Ahead to provide some of the answers.

When addressing the delicate issues of computer fraud, invasion of privacy, and protection of children, Gates asserts that "it's being worked on..." One is left wondering whether, with his billions, Gates isn't attempting to find technological responses to these questions, but may rather be forced to rely on sociological, ideological or unconstitutional constraints. The temptation to protect his industry from those who would attack or misuse it is great, perhaps by any means necessary. Exactly how Gates goes about protecting it is of compelling interest to those of us who believe in privacy, personal integrity and freedom. If the book has one weakness, this would seem to be it. Gates "glosses over" the dangers of cyber-space to children, to fair competition, to certain constitutional protections.

Referring to his childhood days, early in the Microsoft story, Gates explains how computers gave a mere boy the power to compete equitably with adults on their own terms, much like driving a car at age thirteen. The appeal of this technology is so strong, Gates repeatedly confirms, that soon all ages, professions and even creeds will be united in cyber- bliss. Gates seems unaware of the serious reservations which psychologists and educators have in this regard. "Connectivity", to use his term, may have as many deleterious effects as advantages. The true beneficiary of this technology is business. Through the Internet, transformation of the way business is conducted is underway.

Those firms which excel at use of this medium, Gates points out, will flourish, others will wither and die. Given this scenario, Microsoft itself is currently vying "tooth and nail" with Netscape, Sun-Microsystems and IBM to varying degrees. In so competing, Microsoft is, in fact, designing software systems which will enable other firms, often their own potential competitors, to grow and expand through use of the Internet. Gates and his associates outline -- in broad terms -- the multitude of plans underway, within Microsoft, for redesigning and innovating existing software packages, overall strategies and long-term concepts. Many of these ideas have merit; yet, critics of the book seem to agree that little is forthcoming in the way of convincing, new concepts which could prove viable in the current market. In launching its recent products, "Blackbird" and "Internet Explorer", Microsoft is retreading tires already somewhat worn. Some observers are confident, nonetheless, that Microsoft will continue to dominate the software market simply by coasting on existing designs.

Gates is aware that change is an innate characteristic of his industry. He concedes, toward the end of The Road Ahead that, "...there's never been a leader from one era who was also a leader in the next." This recognition spurs him on toward wanting to break with past trends. He envisages Microsoft as the industry leader both in the past and in the future. He emphasizes that there is a perceptible movement away from the active development of the P.C. toward the Information Highway, the Net, which he perceives as the pivotal factor in this still- emerging industry. Positioning Microsoft as the firm which surpasses all others is Gates' primordial goal and The Road Ahead, penned by a number of astute technocrats, is the expression, indeed manifestation, of this prophecy soon, if "Gates and colleagues" have their way, to be fulfilled.

(A. F. Madsen. M.Ed.)