Commentary—Dynamic, Distributed, Platform Independent OR/MS Applications—A Network Perspective

We are in the midst of, or perhaps at the beginning of, the development of a new concept of computing and computers that will significantly affect OR/MS. This development is summarized in the phrase “the network is the computer.” The focus and use is not an individual computer and its resources but a network of computers and resources, indeed, a network of all computers. This concept is closely tied to an evolving view about what a computer is; we now have an exploding number of ubiquitous devices with computational capacity, such as credit cards, cellular phones, and TV set-top boxes. We need to anticipate the impact of millions and then billions of programmable devices that are interconnected on a high bandwidth network accessible by millions and then billions of individuals. The sudden and fast moving development of computer networks and the wide distribution of powerful computing devices is revolutionizing not just OR/MS, but commerce, communications, and indeed, nearly all aspects of society.