If you don’t know where you have come from, how will you know where you are going?

Not my words but those of Roman statesman, lawyer, political theorist and philosopher Cicero.

His words are just as pertinent today as we embark on another journey in this brave new world with the launch of this website.

My journey into the world of IT started back in 1970, when I attended free lectures on computers at the London Science Museum. They were of a Sunday and required a tube ride or bus trip, then a walk through Hyde Park to Kensington.

I can remember one afternoon, on the way home, being asked for sixpence for a cup of tea. As luck would have it, I had a spare sixpence – I was even prepared to give it to the man and walk all of the way home instead of catching the bus.

His response: “No, it’s not enough. You keep it.’’

Lesson 1: I knew how much a cup of tea was. He wanted it for something stronger.

At the time, a couple of us were working for a travel agency, helping switch their accounts from manual bookkeeping onto computer. We would hire time on the computer in the University of London to run our programs.

It was like one of those you see on an old James Bond movie ... or in an episode of Get Smart. Spinning cassettes and flashing lights, huge banks of cabinets that took up a room the size of a warehouse. It would take a couple of hours to run the program.

Today, that information can be processed on a laptop or desktop computer in a matter of moments. So it’s good to remember where we have come from when we look at what is being provided today.

Computers have collapsed time. We no longer have to wait for information to arrive by courier or snail mail. It can be emailed virtually instantaneously.

The same can be said of the property market here on the Sunshine Coast. It’s timely to look back at where we have come from to help determine where we are headed. And next week I will do just that.