THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700
May 9, 1996
03 00050 96050901
Mr. David S. Vannier
Director of Mobile Architecture
Mobile & Handheld Products Group
Intel Corporation
2200 Mission College Blvd; Mail Stop SC9-28
Santa Clara, CA 95052 8119
..
Subject:
Proposal for Intel to study SDS
Objectives for SDS Demonstration
Dear 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.
.. The draft quote for Andy Grove can be edited simply by removing the
reference to Welch. Beyond that, it seems axiomatic that Mr. Grove's 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. Grove asks about the ideas, and he receives
the paper, then the effort will have succeeded.
..
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...
.. 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 cite as goals of
technology:
..
Leadership requires analysis that connects 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.
..
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.
..
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.
..
My goal for the SDS demonstration is to show the integration of time,
information and meaning to support analysis, i.e., knowledge, and the "metric"
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.
..
Again, I hope those who attend the demo will have read the New World Order
paper which develops these points more carefully.