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


[Submitted via Internet]

March 2, 1998                                           03 00050 98030201



Mr. R. Max Wideman
Wideman, R. Max
2216 West 21st Avenue
Vancouver, BC  V6L 1J5
Canada

Subject:  Peer Review, Communication Metrics

Ref:   a. Max's letter Mar 1, 1998
          b. IBM announces Business Intelligence initiative
          c. Welch letter Feb 23, 1998

Dear Max,
Thanks for the detailed notes. The next step is to develop an outline that gives the work a sensible structure. I jury-rigged the current piece together from other stuff to serve another purpose, then thought it might provide a foundation for the book we have discussed. Two of your comments in particular caught my attention. The attached notes consider your suggestion to introduce the structure of communication early. I agree per attached notes. You asked about the structure of human thought (the listing) that shows the progression from small organic elements - I called them "bits" to correlate with computer jargon - into larger mental constructs, resulting in "vision" that permits looking ahead to anticipate and/or shape the future.

Second, below is a Reuter's press report of an announcement by IBM about plans to market "business intelligence." Attached is some analysis for the purpose of defining and distinguishing useful "business intelligence," from traditional marketing hype. This kind of effort by a major player gives visibility to the ideas in the book, and so may help build an audience. Again, your comments would be helpful.

Sincerely,

THE WELCH COMPANY



Rod Welch

Enclosures

P.S. Per our earlier experience, I zipped the two HTML files, so you can use your Web browser. If this is more bother than it is a help, let me know and I can put everything in a single text file.