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In the end, as the story of the emperor's new clothes reminds us, somebody has to break the spell. In May 2003, ­Nicholas Carr cast himself in the naysayer's role by publishing an article titled "IT Doesn't Matter" in the Harvard Business Review. In 2004 he followed that with a book, Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage. Thereby, he aroused the ire of the good and the great in Silicon Valley and Redmond, WA.

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