He knew his business, let me tell you. Howard Rahn in New York's garment district was the second guinea pig. Goldman and a classmate approached Rahn about developing software for his dressmaking business. During his post-college years as a computer consultant, Goldman tweaked software, replaced hardware, and fixed wiring. N.Y. It was all those years of going desk to desk, computer to computer, and commiserating with technophobic users that led Goldman to develop Cognet's software, which manages other software.
Plans call for integrating the two into one package within a year.
Cognet, Goldman says, would allow a software company to deliver product and updates over the Internet without any programming. This is not much different, in terms of results, from what America Online does for its subscribers. To provide that service, AOL must write its own programs. When it adds a new service, such as instant messaging, programmers have to write and test a new program or script that can download it. Cognet, says Goldman, is an alternative to having programmers and testers build and maintain such capability.