| Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 12:03:39 -0700 | 04 00067 61 00071101 |
Mr. Jack Park
jackpark@thinkalong.com
unrev-II@egroups.com
Street address
Palo Alto, CA Zip
| Subject: | Gelernter -- Time Key Idea for KM |
Dear Jack,
Thanks for your letter yesterday submitting an article written by David Gelernter. After reading through a lot of "noise" about Cyber-this-and-that, Gelernter proposes a core advance on using technology for applying time to organize information.
On January 20, 2000 the DKR team set an objective to improve collaboration that pools efforts through cooperation to save time and money. Collaboration reflects Doug Engelbart's idea of "Collective Intelligence" or "Collective IQ," from telecon with Doug on December 22, 1999, where he cited his 1992 paper that explains collaboration to solve complex problems. On May 5, 2000 Eric submitted specifications detailing requirements for a Collaborative Document System (CDS) to accomplish Doug's objective with email. On June 23, 2000 you submitted an architecture to supplement Eric's ideas by proposing a collaborative evolutionary epistomology to organize the record.
During the project meeting at SRI on May 15, 2000 requirements for effective collaboration were reviewed for setting out directly what might be useful in a source, and how it relates to a specific project objective, i.e....
For example, recently a colleague cited experience at PG&E showed that "organization" is a missing ingredient in conventional methods like Wiki, email, Outlook, Word Power Point, and so on. We clarified this perceived value/need that is missing from daily management by noting a secret of KM might be a design that aligns with the human mind's innate process of organizing information based on time, building chronologies of sequence showing cause and effect. The core idea is that better handling of daily working information, called out by Doug through a reference on March 27, 2000, improves understanding of cause and effect, and this improves productivity and, therefore, earnings, including solving world problems (corollary objectives in the private and public arenas), if it could be accomplished.
Gelernter's article which you cited, generally, seems to support this proposition beginning on page 4, paragraph 34. He makes a good case for using "time" to organize information. Since there no anchors in Gelernter's article, his explanation is incorporated into the SDS record to illustrate an aspect of his solution.
Recently, a letter to Professor Mary Keeler, who discussed the meaning of "knowledge" in a presentation to the DKR team at SRI on May 18, 2000 made a similar point, based on the work of Charles Peirce, reviewed on May 15, 2000, thanks to your help in providing some of Mary's research.
Gelernter is a leading computer thinker/designer, pundit and "futurist" who deserves attention. How does he propose to implement his idea? The article does not provide a scenario, nor a link to a body of information that illustrates how his insight might improve handling of daily working information to improve earnings, and solve world problems.
Gelernter's explanation for organizing information may, however, point to an emerging environment that forms a new market, within the meaning of a disruptive technology, discussed on 990527, based on integrating time with information to yield knowledge management for solving information overload, which each day gets worse? Gelernter does note that right now people are working around problems caused by lack of organization. He indicates ignoring and covering up problems builds demand for a solution, similar to Aristotle's point about the compounding effect of inaccurate understandings, discussed in NWO...
http://www.welchco.com/03/00050/01/09/03/02/03/0309.HTM#6056
Does anyone see, or sense, such a growing demand in day-to-day work that supports Gelernter's proposition? Recently, a copy of a letter was sent to the team that provides a "use case" illustrating Gelernter's point about continual bumbling by top people because no one can track the complexity of sequence on cause and effect using conventional methods....
http://www.welchco.com/02/05/02/61/00/07/0501.HTM#0001
Does the current economic boom producing sunshine profits render this issue moot, because "intelligence" is not a big enough "care about," i.e., nobody cares because everybody is subject to the same problem, so therefore a solution seems not worth pursuing because, a, it is difficult to improve management, b, adding "intelligence" to management increases accountability, and c, we are making a living fixing the problems we cause, so why bother?
THE WELCH COMPANY
Rod Welch
rowelch@attglobal.net