ABSTRACT
The authors’ interest in the economic benefits of applying tools to IT were sparked by Baetjer’s book, Software as Capital.1 Baetjer explains in terms of economic theory (particularly the Austrian school of economics) that knowledge is embodied in capital goods. As he states,
In virtually all human production (other than gathering berries in open fields, and even there we often bring a pail or a box to carry them in), we employ capital goods — tools — for the purpose. Much of our knowledge of how to produce is found not in our heads, but in those capital goods that we employ. Capital is embodied knowledge.
