Some advances that were ahead of their time
Sometimes, advances in science must be done in small increments. Big jumps ahead are often not taken seriously. Sometimes the problem is that the technology is not ready, sometimes, someone with more influence or a better marketing defines the name and gets the credit. Here are some examples, but you can find many more in the literature. But, the important question is not really about credit. It is about why the current scientific publishing and scientific dissemination mechanisms slow down some of the ideas….
PatternForge
Similar to what SourceForge does for code, the PatternForge philosophy is to offer software engineers a centralized online location to find curated software engineering resources.
PatternForge collects, refines, improves and perfects not only design patterns but all software engineering instruments (a.k.a. artifacts, which essentially means anything that contributes to the development of quality software) and it does not only make them available to the community, but facilitates their use by software developers in real projects and with the support of CASE tools.
PatternForge adopts the “forge” approach, and consequently, it is materialized as a web-based collaborative platform for both developing and sharing software engineeering knowledge.
The role of IT in moving towards a socially-beneficial economy
“Many scholars and economists have raised the issue of the degradation of the principles of the theory of capitalism and their lack of validity in today’s world. These principles have guided the world economy for a long time and did reasonably well. However, the introduction of IT systems, their evolution in processing power, memory and connectivity and the capabilities that these advances bring, have resulted in the capability to practice “unenlightened self-interest” in the large scale. In this article we present the first IT system capable of reverting the situation, bringing us back in the direction of enlightened self-interest and promoting a more socially-beneficial economic activity.”