THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700


Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 04:08:57 -0700

03 00050 61 01071901




Garold L. Johnson
dynalt@dynalt.com
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Subject:   SDS and KM

Dear Gary,

I liked comments in your letter today about "your youth," because this suggests you have experience, and that is essential for KM, at least my approach to it.
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SDS is my program, so I guess it is "proprietary." I have been seeking alliance through Doug and his OHS/DKR team to advance SDS development. There has been some interest by SRI, per my letter to Pat Lincoln the other day about joining forces.
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The OHS/DKR group itself is ad hoc, and has produced several sets of requirements over the past 18 months. As mentioned in my letter to you a week ago, Jack Park is a contributor who is writing some code. The record over the past 5 years or so, indicates that KM is difficult to develop, which is noted in your letter, as well.
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In any case, I was attracted to your writing that shows strong insight about key aspects of using technology productively to improve paperwork, which for convenience, I call KM, explained in POIMS.
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SDS is a DOS program. A big idea that needs to be worked out is the proposition that what we are after is improving the underlying building blocks of doing knowledge work. We have the alphabet and mathematics, which includes the concept of "time." SDS provides a composite technology that integrates time with information, so there is a stronger baseline from which to do all other work. It is proposed that this step will lift civilization in like manner that alphabet technology advanced civilization over the past 2,000 years to reach information technology. I am not really a computer guy, but with luck and good fortune I have patched something together that accomplishes this objective. I think of the alphabet and mathematics as public utilities, and so eventually SDS is a new utility that enables people to work from a much higher plan, which I characterize as "knowledge" rather the current plane, which is "information" supported by IT. Therefore, it is convenient to think in terms of moving from IT to a culture of knowledge.
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I am looking for people and resources for thinking through and developing a level of implementation for SDS that can provide stability needed for a truly useful technology. Just as alphabet and mathematics technologies have been stable, people need long term stability in underlying knowledge tools in order to realize any actual improvement in productivity. The concept can be described by the idea that SDS makes the computer an "operating system for people and organizations," just as DOS, Windows and Unix are operating systems for computers.
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The fact that SDS is a DOS program places it at a more fundamental level, than what seems to be the "flavor of the month" technologies that come go. Doug pointed out in a brief discussion a month or so ago that SDS is susceptible to bumbling in Redmond that would evolve support away from DOS. So, the question remains how to accomplish the need for stability?
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Hopefully, all this doesn't sound too silly. SDS itself is very real, and is very effective for saving time and money on complex work. Naturally, I want to monetize this.
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If you have time, maybe we could talk by phone about your interests and how SDS might be able to contribute. My number is 415 781 5700.

Thanks.

Sincerely,

THE WELCH COMPANY



Rod Welch
rowelch@attglobal.net