Knowledge Management Consortium, Inc. San Francisco Chapter Street address San Francisco, CA 94111



Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 20:30:25 -0800



Mr. Rod Welch The Welch Company 440 Davis Court #1602 San Francisco, CA 94111 2496
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Subject:   Doug Engelbart

Dear Rod,

Please find below a message from Doug Engelbart. Doug is probably the most prolific innovator of the information age. Some of his pioneering inventions that you use everyday are:

computer mouse
display editing
hypertext
windows
groupware
version control
integrated email
teleconferencing
videoconferencing
computer-aided meetings
context-sensitive help
client-server architecture
uniform command syntax
universal user interface

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You may wish to pursue the Colloquium described below.

Happy holidays,

Mr. John Maloney President John Maloney







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Dear Colleague,

Please join me in a Colloquium hosted by Stanford University as we discuss the challenges of coping with the increasing urgency and complexity which face modern organizations.

Thirty years ago, when I led the team that developed NLS, the first hypertext system, and pioneered collaborative computing, I had a vision of computing that was to augment human intellect by following a comprehensive strategy.
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While many of the aspects of the information revolution are now improving the way we learn, live, and work, the unprecedented rate and scale of global change is also leading to major problems that will not be solved through technological solutions alone.

I would like to use this Stanford Colloquium -- *An In-Depth Look At The Unfinished Revolution*-- as an opportunity to share with you a comprehensive strategy that will enable individuals and organizations to begin to cope with the increasingly more rapid pace and constant state of change in modern society.
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More specifically, the Colloquium will give us a forum to engage in lively dialogue on how we can improve our abilities to leverage our collective IQ.

In my view, the concept of collective IQ and its improvement needs to become a core focus and challenge for society. Although much attention is now given to the challenges and opportunities of e-business, the organizations, regions and countries that adopt the most effective, large-scale strategy for becoming collectively smarter, will enable broad improvements throughout society and commerce, including e-business. The concept of high collective IQ will, therefore, vitally affect every aspect of governance, security, economy, education, health, business and other societal services.
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The colloquium is designed to generate awareness of large-scope issues and opportunities, to present a framework that can evolve a coherent improvement infrastructure, and to examine scaling such an infrastructure for sectoral, regional, national, and global applications. Such concepts have been the objective and focus of my work in collaborative technology and strategy since 1951.

The Colloquium begins on January 6th and will convene for 10 consecutive Thursday evenings from 4 to 7 P.M. PST. The colloquium will be webcast live at http://scpd.stanford.edu/pd/engelbart/engelbart.html Archival replays will be available shortly after the live sessions. A very limited number of seats are also available on site at Stanford to registered participants on a first-come-first-served basis.
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For additional information please feel free to visit the colloquium websites http://www.bootstrap.org/colloquium at the Bootstrap Institute, the organization I founded to strategically map a course for the future. The colloquium is open to the public and is free of charge.

Registration is advised, as that will enable full access to all the interactions that will be featured.
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I hope you can join us as we start an organized dialogue on the problems and opportunities that face us collectively.

Sincerely,

Douglas Engelbart, Ph.D.



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Post Script

If there is someone who might be interested, I would appreciate your passing this message on.