“The Invention of the Pivot Table: The concept that led to today’s pivot table came from the halls of the Lotus Development Corporation with a revolutionary spreadsheet program called Lotus Improv. Improv was envisioned in 1986 by Pito Salas of the Advanced Technology Group at Lotus.
Realizing that spreadsheets often have patterns of data, Pito concluded that if one could build a tool that could recognize these patterns, then one could build enhanced data models. Lotus ran with the concept and started developing the next-generation spreadsheet.” (from ...
Being a veteran of the groupware movement (worked at Lotus for years, and co-founded eRoom Technology) this item caught my eye:
“Liquid Systems, a venture-funded software company that is focused on enterprise messaging and collaboration, according to sources familiar with the company’s plans.” (fromInfoWorld)
I guess only the InfoWorld headline refers to “groupware” but it’s a very 80’s term, that even in the 90’s we at eRoom avoided like the plague.
“Are we going to be a player in VoIP? Absolutely. Are we going to be prepared to disrupt our own business? Absolutely, Why? Because if not, somebody else will.” (Techdirt)
It reminds me of stuff I used to say way back when, when I was making the case for building Improv (which was code named “BackBay”, and as an R&D project “Modeler”.)
In those days, of course, Lotus (remember?) was the undisputed PC software leader, with 1-2-3 (remember?) being the wunderkind-unbelievable-cash cow for Lotus. I used to say things like “With Improv we threw out the rule ...
I got many comments from people about my postingsrecently aboutLotus Improv. Imagine my surprise when I discovered a pretty accurate description of Improv and its history in the WikiPedia. By the way, I had absolutely nothing to do with writing it. Actually I am quite curious who did write it, because he or she was pretty well informed so I suspect it’s someone who was on the team from the early days, or knew someone who was. (Of course there are a few inaccuracies, but what the heck!) Cool
Seems like a dredged up some “old” (you know who you are) Improv fans with my earlier posting, so I thought an additional comment or two might be in order. First off, lest it be misunderstood, in no way do I feel anything but totally proud about Imrpov as a concept and a product. I hope it is not inconsistent to feel that way, and yet agree that for a variety of reason it was not successful, as a product.
The concept of an alternative (not replacement) for a spreadsheet for real financial modeling is, I think, quite sound. (Yes, I can do page layout in Microsoft Word, but if that’s my purpose, PageMaker is better. You could make an analogous poin...
It’s been a while. Which is why my heart beat just a little faster when I read a reference to Improv (not altogether flattering) in the Adam Bossworth pieceI just wrote about, where he said:
*** Consider the spreadsheet**. It is a protean, sloppy, plastic, flexible medium that is, ironically, the despair of all accountants and auditors because it is virtually impossible to reliably understand a truly complex and rich spreadsheet.
Lotus corporation (now IBM), filled with Harvard MBA’s and PhD’s in CS from MIT, built Improv. Improv set out “to fix all this”. It was an auditors dream. It provided rarified heights of abstraction, for...