Intel Corporation
2200 Mission College Blvd
Santa Clara, CA 95052 8119



May 21, 1996


Mr. Rod Welch
The Welch Company
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111 2496
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Subject:   Welch Proposal for Intel to Study SDS

Dear Rod,

I've tried several channels and had no luck in getting any interest in evaluating your software capabilities. Intel has a number of programs going on already, with several different consultants and vendors. At this point in time, they do not feel that they have the bandwidth to take any more on.
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Sincerely,



Dave Vannier

















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Dave,

I'm trying a new email program, so I hope this works.

Thanks very much for following up our discussion about the Welch proposal.
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The draft quote for Andy Grove can be edited simply by removing the reference to Welch. Beyond that, it seems axiomatic that Mr. Groves career has been dedicated to making technology useful. As a great leader, much of his focus is likely on getting technology to improve leadership, as you called for in the Byte interview. The reference to Welch in the proposed draft is aimed solely at spurring an inquiry about the Welch ideas, as set out in the New World Order .. paper submitted to you on Sep 27. If Mr. Groves asks about the ideas, and he receives the paper, then the effort will have succeeded.
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My aim is to lift the capacity to think, remember and communicate, since that is the only remedy to the danger of the Information Highway. I believe Intel can contribute and that the prospects for success are exciting.

Robert MacNamera's book, "In Retrospect," recalls that leadership in the Kennedy/Johnson Administrations was flawed because events moved too fast to permit adequate analysis. Dr. Henry Kissinger notes in his book, "Diplomacy," that the overwhelming challenge of leadership is the pressure of time to perform analysis. Johanna Neuman's new book, "Lights, Camera, War," traces the relationship between leadership and technology over the centuries to the New World Order of constant information. Ms. Neuman says each new communication technology unleashes a dilemma calling on leaders to "...change their habits, to adjust to a new speed or a new imperative, to hurry their decisions...
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Thus, information without analysis, what I call a "metric," is a "Pandora's Box." Peter Drucker, whom Mr. Groves honored recently at an event in San Francisco, notes that increasing information does not improve communication because it does not improve understanding which comes only from analysis.

So please consider two additional points to those you cited as goals of technology:
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  1. Leadership requires analysis that fits information, received over time, so it comprises a larger mosaic of understandings about correlations and implications. This mosaic is called "knowledge," as qualitatively distinct from information.

    Information received over time is called a chronology, as developed in keeping a diary.
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    Information that comes too fast, as on the Information Highway, prevents the mind from maintaining chronology that is vital to the context of information in making the conversion to knowledge.

    The Schedule Diary System (SDS) accomplishes the integration of time and information that permits analysis needed for decision support to be performed quickly, thoroughly and accurately.
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  2. When events move quickly, the mind commingles events and induces correlations that are incorrect, called "false knowledge." People begin forgetting and miss-remembering very soon after a meeting, call or sending written text. We feel very confident, but are wrong about what we "know." This gives rise to the need for a "metric" to measure understanding, to capture accuracy and to retrieve it quickly. In ISO language, this is called traceability. SDS provides this audit trail of understandings, so that people can maintain shared meaning over time.
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My goal for the SDS demonstration is to show the integration of time, information and meaning to support analysis, i.e., knowledge, and the "metrics" of traceability needed for effective leadership. Intel's goal might be to discover what needs to be added to form a vision of effective technology for leadership.
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Again, I hope those who attend the demo will have read the New World Order paper, which develops these points more carefully.

Thanks for the shot.

Rod