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







July 25, 1997                                                                        03 00050 97072501



Mr. Thomas K. Landauer, Ph.D.
Professor
University of Colorado
Campus Box #345
Boulder, CO  80309

Subject:  Communication Metrics
                 Calculating Meaning Drift

Ref:   a. Welch Telecon Jul 25, 1997
          b. Welch letter to Landauer Jul 9, 1997
          c. Plato's Problem, Landauer, Dumais


Dear Tom,
I found your site. Thanks for the tip.

I was unable to find any direct authority in your paper for the proposition that "meaning" is fluid, ref c page 41, and that "word meanings are constantly in flux," ref c page 43. I do not doubt that this is so, but would like to find specific research on the rate of deviation in understandings among participants of common events such as a business meeting. I suspect there have been studies where people are interviewed following a meeting and their understandings recorded. What is the rate of change in understanding as a function of the number of subjects, length of discusison, number of participants, the amont of time people spend talking v. listening, the degree of contention, and similar influences. There is then a propogation of misunderstanding among various populations, e.g., a subcontractor, a vendor, the engineering department, sales and so on. Has this type of work been done?

Your work is precisely on point with respect to effectiveness of collaborative and cooperative effort founded on "communication" as the basis for "community." It is particularly central to the notion of "truth is a moving target" and the corollary management practice of identifying root causes, linking to original sources and so on, which seems founded in the original meaning of religion, "to bind back," as a key "knowledge" tool.

Anyway, congratulations on an excellent Web site.

Sincerely,

THE WELCH COMPANY



Rod Welch