Removing barriers to interoperability -- there are only winners

I assume you have all read about the announcement by Bentley and Autodesk regarding the agreement to expand the interoperability between the software applications provided by the two companies.  If you've been on vacation or otherwise "disconnected," you can read about it here.

I am quite certain that there will be (in fact, there has been already) speculation -- informed and otherwise -- regarding why Autodesk agreed to this, why Bentley agreed to this, who wins, who loses, who gains what advantage where, and on and on.  This might provide short term subjects for industry blogs and perhaps some interesting and amusing reading.  But beyond some short term amusement, this sort of speculation entirely misses the point.   There is a really big winner and, frankly, the only one that counts -- the community of infrastructure professionals that both companies serve.  As referenced repeatedly in the joint announcement (linked to) above, when interoperability gets better, the users communities of both companies and the industry at large win.

From the point of view of Bentley and Autodesk, we will continue to "win" (whatever that means), as we always have, by providing value to our infrastructure users through our products and services.  The magic behind improving interoperability is that it doesn't enable one company or another to gain a larger share of the pie in a zero sum game.  Rather, it creates a large pie by increasing the overall benefits our users realize from their investments in technology from both companies.

So while all the bloggers, pundits, and industry observers have a field day dissecting this announcement, I'm sure that when all the dust settles one thing will be absolutely clear, dwarfing all other opinions and points of view -- this agreement is absolutely huge for our collective users in the infrastructure industries.  The executives from both companies who made this happen are to be commended for their foresight, perserverance, and commitment to the best interests of the industries we both serve.

Finally, from the Bentley point of view, this is entirely consistent with the concepts we presented at our recent BE Conference regarding "Sustaining Infrastructure."  As point out by numerous speakers a number of times, one of the three critical elements of Sustaining Infrastructure is nurturing and sustaining the infrastructure professions.  The world will simply not be able to improve and sustain either our society or our environment without a growing, energized and committed community of infrastructure professionals.  One way to expand the capacity of this community is to make them more productive (see pages 18 & 19 of our Sustaining Infrastructure whitepaper).  Improving interoperability improves productivity at all levels -- practioners, teams, projects, enterprises.

"[T]he most devastating threat to truth in the world is the overweening claim to the absolutely true. In the certainty of the moment, the humility of the enduring question is indispensable."
- Karl Jaspers, 1951