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<p class="MsoNormal"><a name="_MailEndCompose"><span style="color:#1F497D">I’m finding this discussion of counterfactual history fascinating, but I am more intrigued by the discussion of what, exactly, constitutes a “failure” (apologies to Bob Dylan). That
topic arose in a recent paper I gave about a failed information retrieval system developed by Calvin Mooers, in which I argued that although he failed commercially, he nevertheless made significant advances in computer science, upon which a lot of modern computing
depends. One member of the audience remarked that my discussion of failure/success may not have much explanatory value for historians (I can give more details off-line).<o:p></o:p></span></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">More relevant to this discussion is a recent exchange on Quora over the failure of the IBM operating system OS/2 as it went up against Microsoft Windows. The discussion goes well beyond the journalists who wrote
about it a decade ago. Here is the link:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.quora.com/Why-did-IBMs-OS-2-project-lose-to-Microsoft-given-that-IBM-had-much-more-resources-than-Microsoft-at-that-time">https://www.quora.com/Why-did-IBMs-OS-2-project-lose-to-Microsoft-given-that-IBM-had-much-more-resources-than-Microsoft-at-that-time</a><span style="color:#1F497D">.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Best,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Paul Ceruzzi<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:ceruzzip@si.edu"><span style="color:#0563C1">ceruzzip@si.edu</span></a><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">202-633-2414<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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