"A Spreadsheet Way of Knowledge" by Steven Levy

1. People and Computers in Commerce A Spreadsheet Way of Knowledge --------------------------- Steven Levy Tasama Vatanaputi

2. The Birth of Electronic Spreadsheet Before 1979, Harvard MBA students used ledger sheets as spreadsheet. In 1978, Dan Bricklinfound that it is a routine and time-consuming task of recalculation in case of fluctuations in figures. In 1979, Dan Bricklinand Bob Frankston developed the first electronic spreadsheet program, VisiCalc. Tasama Vatanaputi

3. VisiCalc: Father of the Spreadsheet VisiCalc is the application that turned the Apple II into a serious business machine. http://gizmodo.com/5315670/visicalc-father-of-the-spreadsheet Tasama Vatanaputi

4. Saving time “An accountant who got a rush task sat down with his micro and his spreadsheet, finished it in an hour or two, and left it on his desk for two days. Then he Fed Ex-ed it to the client and got all sorts of accolades for working overtime.” Ezra Gottheil Tasama Vatanaputi

5. Keeping track Spreadsheets help businesses to be aware of things that has been overlooked. e.g. the capability of sorting things in order shows the worst salesman in a company. “Executives no longer have to be satisfied with quarterly updates, for it is now an easy matter to compile monthly, weekly, even daily updates.” Tasama Vatanaputi

6. What-if factor The ability to create scenarios, explore hypothetical development, try out different options. e.g. “He (Gottheil) was offering the computer different hypothetical developments, and it was feeding back to him their probable consequences.” ‘An Entrepreneurial Renaissance’ Tasama Vatanaputi

7. Decentralization Theodore Stein of the Connecticut Mutual said that before VisiCalc, the company centralised its computers services in data processing division. Usually, people were not satisfied with the information from DP. Now, thanks to VisiCalc, people outside DP can do the calculations themselves. No more concern for the bureaucracy. Tasama Vatanaputi

8. Over-necessity of numbers “There’s an increasing demand for quantitative rather than qualitative justification for decisions.” Bob Frankston Hard figures shape people’s opinion. “We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.” Marshall McLuhan Frankston also mentioned that two people with opposite views can finally have the same view in front of a spreadsheet. Tasama Vatanaputi

9. Intangible reality For business, there are more factors in reality that can not be turned into formulas. e.g. Market trend, Consumer behavior, Stockholders’ pleasure or misery Formulas in a spreadsheet program are only assumptions of the model-maker. “A phantom business within the computer” Tasama Vatanaputi

10. Trap of design The format of spreadsheets is a great convincer. The electronic spreadsheets become more the art of persuasion than a tool for business analysis and productivity. “With graphs, things take on greater weight” Allen Sneider Tasama Vatanaputi

11. Lastly Electronic spreadsheet program gave a huge impact on the way of business that Bricklin’s teachers at Harvard would never imagined. "I'm not rich because I invented VisiCalc, but I feel that I've made a change in the world. That's a satisfaction money can't buy." - Dan Bricklin BUT do not let ‘formulas’ manipulate the relations between people. Tasama Vatanaputi