There is a bad meme going around that there is some sort of Chinese wall between the worlds of consumer and enterprise software. It started with a Robert Scoble observation , bounced over to an injudicious Michael Krigsman response, provoking a howl from Nicholas Carr, then exploded into general mayhem.

Make no mistake - enterprise software follows fads just as surely as any high couture designer. Specifically, enterprise software follows the lead of consumer software, and has done so for years.

• In the 80’s, home PC usage that drove enterprises to adopt client/server programming - producing GUI builder winners like PowerBuilder and Lotus Notes.
• In the 90’s, home Internet usage that drove enterprises to adopt thin-client programming - producing successful J2EE companies like BEA and NetDynamics.
• Today, improvements in consumer web sites are driving enterprises to seek new RAD solutions for building Rich Internet Applications.

As my friend Jim Sutter - the former CIO of Xerox - likes to point out, enterprise software took a big step back with the introduction of the internet. In the “olden” days, users demanded sub-second response and sophisticated user interfaces.

With the advent of Internet apps, users became accustomed to multi-second response times and clumsy form posting user interfaces. Now, rich internet applications like gmail, blogger and facebook are showing that it is possible to build “no compromises” web applications.

Rest assured that the next generation of enterprise programming solutions will be a direct response to what people can already do on the consumer side. For students of history, this means that companies like WaveMaker have an opportunity do what PowerSoft and BEA have done in the past - help this season’s enterprise software be every bit as sexy as last season’s consumer software.