© 2007 Lawrence I. Charters
Washington Apple Pi Journal, Vol. 29, no. 3, May-June 2007, pp. 19-20.
Washington, DC, is not known for computer trade shows. For more than a quarter-century, Washington Apple Pi’s semi-annual Garage Sales were one of the larger shows in the area. But dwarfing these Garage Sales were the oddly named FOSE shows, the annual Federal Office Systems Expositions.
When I first moved to the East Coast, FOSE displayed office systems. You could find furniture, file cabinets, a spectrum of file folders, pencils, pencil sharpeners, a selection of IBM Selectric typewriters in designer colors, and a few computers, plus some odd hybrids, such as computer-controlled high-density file cabinets. Some booths were devoted to hiring workers, or selling the services of office temp agencies. Even in the early 1990s, an ancient Apple II or two could be found tucked away in a booth at the show in the huge, though now razed, Washington Convention Center.
By the late 1990s, FOSE had evolved into a network manager’s show: everyone gave away pens rather than sold them, and office supplies were replaced by the latest in memory expansion, network cards, network hubs and switches, and network monitoring software. DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) brought in massive Alpha superminicomputers, the same models that powered search engine superpower Alta Vista, and set them up on the exhibit floor. You could still find office furniture, but the furniture was designed to hold computers rather than typewriters. Dozens of computer hardware and software companies were exhibitors, and in addition to give-away pens, everybody gave you a diskette with a demo version of something.
As the new millennium dawned, FOSE evolved into a computer “enterprise” show. Nobody seemed to know exactly what “enterprise” meant, but you could now buy “enterprise” computer calendars, “enterprise” databases, “enterprise” networks and hubs and switches, and “enterprise” furniture. FOSE focused itself on the upper levels of government and corporate management, and it was gratifying to see long lines of sleekly suited executives and Congressional staffers waiting to get a free Nerf Frisbee. This also seemed to be the high point of the “rent a bimbo” movement, with attractive male and female temporary booth workers who knew nothing about a product but exhibited the finest in American dentistry and cosmetology.
The 2002 FOSE was a repeat of the “enterprise” show, except that every booth was devoted to the “secure enterprise.” Booths selling “secure enterprise” consulting services outnumbered booths selling computers, and CD-ROMs replaced diskettes as the media for demo giveaways. Every booth had a U.S. flag and some reference, direct or indirect, to the terrorist attacks of the previous September.
Since then, other themes have come in waves. The 2003 and 2004 FOSEs, for example, were the “camouflage” FOSEs. While Congress never quite got around to issuing a formal declaration of war, the United States was at war, and camouflage computers, camouflage routers, camouflage pens, and pencils, and even camouflage Post-It notes were shown. (The Post-It notes were great for writing secret messages; not even the writer could read them.) A small army of camouflaged military vehicles took command of the exhibit floor, too – but few computer companies. The hundreds of computer firms of the 1990s had given way to the dozen or so of the new millennium. This consolidation applied to software, too: there were more vendors – software publishers and consulting firms – devoted to securing Windows than to selling all other kinds of software, combined.
But the 2007 FOSE might be the most telling show so far. Yes, you can still get free pens and pencils at FOSE, plus the odd coffee cup and insulated beverage holder. One company was giving away miniature deck chairs for “resting” your cell phone, but many were still giving away last year’s camouflage pens and pencils. Not only were computer companies scarce – Hewlett Packard, Gateway, and Dell had fairly small exhibits, with no sign of Apple or IBM – but software companies were rare, too: Microsoft had a small exhibit, devoted mostly to convincing people that Windows Vista was worthwhile, and why don’t you upgrade to the new Office 2007 with its vaguely defined “enhancements?” Adobe did not show up, and Macromedia no longer exists; gone, too, were the usual booths with small companies showing innovative niche products. Only one explicit Mac vendor was at the show: MacSpeech was demonstrating iListen, a speech recognition package that allows you to control a Mac by voice. Cool product, but the MacSpeech booth was probably a quarter the size of the Microsoft exhibit, and that is astounding.
Now located in the even vaster, newer, improved Washington Convention Center, FOSE is smaller than it used to be, though this was disguised. Most FOSE visitors came in via subway, but the walk from the Metro station (in the basement of the complex) to the registration area to the exhibit floor was a maze of corridors that seemed to stretch all the way to Ohio. At one point, visitors were forced to cross a street, and traffic officers were posted to keep buses and wayward cars from running down Expo participants. Just think: all the convenience of indoor travel via subway, with a station right in the complex, combined with a stroll outside in the middle of traffic! Such innovation!
Once an office supply exposition and then a computer show and then a computer networking show and then a computer security show, what is FOSE today? If few computer hardware companies show up, and few computer software companies are exhibiting, what is left?
Best Buy. Yes, Best Buy was probably the most prominent exhibitor. Their exhibit area was packed, mostly with people watching Dance Dance Revolution. There are kids in grad school today that played Dance Dance Revolution in middle school, yet people were crowded around watching elegantly clad office professionals stomp on the DDR pad in time with directions on an Xbox screen and beat-heavy music. Also drawing a crowd was a surveillance camera showing a scene displayed on a notebook computer of people playing golf using a Nintendo Wii – on the other side of the FOSE exhibit floor. The Wii was in a booth promoting something (nobody seemed to know or care). To its credit, Best Buy at least sells the Wii (when they have them), Dance Dance Revolution, and the Xbox, though it wasn’t immediately clear what this had to do with “Federal” or “Office” or “Systems.” It was, at least, an Exposition.
In addition to Best Buy, the other big winner this year was outsourcing. More exhibitors were selling outsourcing services than computer hardware or software. Outsource your IT staff. Outsource your Web design and e-commerce. Outsource your financial management. Outsource your management of outsourced contracts. Outsource management, itself, and get your leadership from a consulting company. Combined with outsourced manufacturing (virtually all the equipment shown at FOSE seems to be made in China), the clear message seems to be: drop everything and learn Mandarin, as otherwise you will be replaced.
A somewhat more generous view might be that Steve Jobs was, once again, right. When the Macintosh was introduced in 1984, he insisted it wasn’t really a computer but a “mind appliance.” You plug it in and, as the famous slogan went, “It just works.” Quoting Apple’s Web site, “Your toaster doesn’t crash. Your kitchen sink doesn’t crash. Why should your computer?” Apple has even eliminated “computer” from the company name.
The Age of Aquarius is gone. Welcome to the Age of the Appliance.