Technology is the great enabler

Throughout time, humans have been blessed with technological breakthroughs. The arrow, the wheel the knife, the telephone the fax machine, the computer...Technology is truly the great enabler allowing us to go faster and father than before. Is HAS made our lives better, allowed us to live longer and connect with each other like never before.

Technology on it's own is not a business.

There are companies out there who will try to tell you that technology is their business, but they're wrong.

All businesses are products or services.

The technology is there to support the product and service, but technology alone is not a business.

You might now say, but what if I'm selling technology?

Even if it's an exclusive item that no one can get anywhere else, chances are they don't really need it and it's the service OF the technology that you're selling, not the technology.

TVs - you don't buy a tv for the technology, you buy a TV for the access to the entertainment it provides and the way it provides it.

Cars - you don't buy a car for the technology, you buy a Car for the fact that it gets you from point A to point B in a certain way with certain add ons.

Technology can be there to assist the service in all it's glory, but when technology becomes the focal point of the service, something gets lost.

I got thinking about this due to the rise of Social Networks on the Internet. In many cases, these are pieces of current web technology creating communities. But is it working? I tend to think that it's better to have the community first, and then utilize technologies to enable existing communities to connect like never before...