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S U M M A R Y


DIARY: February 23, 2000 07:32 AM Wednesday; Rod Welch

Ray Levitt using VDT for APM at Stanford; Doug working on Colloquium.

1...Summary/Objective
2...Teaching VDT to Quantify Risks Due to Unattended Communication
3...Meaning Drift Being Researched by Students
.....NSF Suggests Professional Research on Meaning Drift
4...Solution Requires Tools, Management Science, Leadership
5...Not Enough Bandwidth nor Time to Get Help
6...Doug Engelbart Focusing on Colloquium Grow Movement for DKR Project


..............
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CONTACTS 
0201 - Bootstrap Institute                  510 713 3550
020101 - Mr. Douglas C. Engelbart, Ph.D.
020102 - doug@bootstrap.org
0202 - Civil Engineering Department         650 723 2300
020201 - Mr. Ray Levitt, Ph.D.; Professor =415 723 2677
020202 - rel@cive.stanford.edu
020203 - Construction Engineering & Management Program

SUBJECTS
Stanford Project Management
Continual Learning
Managing Organizations by Projects (MOBP)
Educational Institutions
VDT, Metrics for Communication
Communication Biggest Risk of Mistakes
Entropy in Communications/Information
Alliances on Development

1210 -    ..
1211 - Summary/Objective
1212 -
121201 - Follow up ref SDS 53 0000, ref SDS 52 0000.
121202 -
121203 - Ray does not mention being aware of Doug Engelbart's Colloquium on
121204 - knowledge management.  He is using VDT in the project management
121205 - program to show the cost of unattended communication. ref SDS 0 0192
121206 - Research on "meaning drift" will be discussed in the APM class,
121207 - ref SDS 0 0897, and will be applied in VDT after a solution has been
121208 - deveoped and validated for meaning drift.  This might support NSF
121209 - request for proposal on Communication Metrics in association with
121210 - credentialed academic. ref SDS 0 0710  Communication Metrics could
121211 - support the APM class as a current solution for early adopters in
121212 - advance of a validated solution.  Doug Engelbart appreciated letting
121213 - Ray know about the Colloquium. ref SDS 0 4992   Limited bandwidth
121214 - makes it difficult to apply knowledge and support resources.
121215 -
121216 -
121217 -
121218 -
121219 -
121220 -  ..
1213 -
1214 -
1215 - Progress
1216 -
121601 -  ..
121602 - Teaching VDT to Quantify Risks Due to Unattended Communication
121603 -
121604 - Received ref DRT 1 0001 from Ray dated 000222 (sent late last night),
121605 - responding to my letter, ref DIP 7 0001, also, sent yesterday.
121606 - ref SDS 53 1428
121607 -
121608 -      [On 000829 called to follow up. ref SDS 58 667I
121609 -
121610 - Ray says yes, the theory and application of VDT is part of the APM
121611 - introductory course: Converting Strategy into Action.  VitéProject
121612 - models the chance that communications are missed --i.e. not attended
121613 - to before they expire -- when participants in a project get
121614 - excessively backlogged. ref DRT 1 2120
121615 - ..
121616 - This capability supports the report on the high cost of medical
121617 - mistakes which cited "communication" as a major factor, from the
121618 - record on 990912. ref SDS 23 0001
121619 -
121620 -
121621 -  ..
121622 - Meaning Drift Being Researched by Students
121623 -
121624 - Ray advises that meaning drift or miscommunication from information
121625 - overload, -- i.e., incomplete or erroneous transfer of meaning in a
121626 - communication -- is not addressed by the current versions of VDT nor
121627 - in the commercial ViteProject SW.  It is, however, the subject of
121628 - research by two of Ray's students. ref DRT 1 3604
121629 -
121630 -     The scope of meaning drift goes beyond transferring meaning in
121631 -     communication, it occurs constantly in the human mind due to
121632 -     "recoding," reviewed on 990303, ref SDS 17 2838, and the induction
121633 -     process explained by Tom Landauer cited on 960518. ref SDS 7 3734
121634 -
121635 -     Meaning drift from communication is evident from the Telephone
121636 -     Game, cited in analysis of medical mistakes, ref DIP 8 6048, on
121637 -     990924. ref SDS 24 3955  It was also reported on 971229 from film
121638 -     on executive training. ref SDS 15 1526
121639 -     ..
121640 -     On 990615 prepared proposal to NSF on Communication Metrics.
121641 -     ref SDS 18 4928  Under "Significance of the Innovation" discussing
121642 -     organic subject structure, ref SDS 18 0404, the problem of
121643 -     "meaning drift" is also explained. ref OF 3 3201,
121644 -
121645 -
121646 -      ..
121647 -     NSF Suggests Professional Research on Meaning Drift
121648 -
121649 -     On 991213 NSF found that the proposal on Com Metrics set important
121650 -     objectives, ref SDS 28 9435, but refused to make an award on the
121651 -     grounds that Welch lacks polish. ref SDS 28 0865  On 991221 Sally
121652 -     Nerlove, Ph.D., at NSF suggested resubmitting the proposal again
121653 -     and associating with a credentialed academic. ref SDS 29 0001
121654 -
121655 -     Possibly Ray's research efforts can support this objective by
121656 -     adding an effort to quantify the incidence, acceleration and
121657 -     impact of meaning drift, as defined in POIMS. ref OF 1 8316
121658 -
121659 -     In our meeting on 960723 Ray considered related study projects.
121660 -     ref SDS 10 8742  At that time, however, his schedule promoting VDT
121661 -     did not permit doing research.  Now that he has research underway,
121662 -     possibly this can be accomplished.
121663 -     ..
121664 -     The research would support Ray's form of communication
121665 -     metrics to identify the consequences of limited span of attention,
121666 -     which contributes to "meaning drift," and my objective to quantify
121667 -     the problem in order to help people recognize the advantage of
121668 -     reducing meaning drift, as explained in POIMS. ref OF 1 0561
121669 -
121670 -     There is nothing in the record showing research on meaning drift
121671 -     has been done.  Research on 000110, following NSF's report, shows
121672 -     there is no work being done in this field. ref SDS 36 0001
121673 -
121674 -     Research could be conducted across disciplines -- in education,
121675 -     government, industry, medical practice, etc. --- to demonstrate
121676 -     universal character of the problem.  This effort fits the model of
121677 -     integrated disciplines Stanford's Management Science department is
121678 -     promoting (see Mission Statement on 000202, ref SDS 49 4680).
121679 -     Research methodology would be to capture language in meetings,
121680 -     both with, and without, knowledge of a test being conducted.
121681 -     Testing could be very simple to perform by interviewing people
121682 -     after meetings at different times, and reviewing email traffic, to
121683 -     pickup the language and action that impart meanings people draw,
121684 -     and how quickly error is spread.
121685 -     ..
121686 -     Interesting work would result correlating these findings
121687 -     with Ray's VDT program diagnostics.
121688 -
121689 -
121690 -  ..
121691 - Solution Requires Tools, Management Science, Leadership
121692 -
121693 - Ray advises that research on "meaning drift" (to solve information
121694 - overload) will be discussed in the APM courses, and he will try to
121695 - move the ideas into the commercial tools as soon as they have been
121696 - worked out and validated. ref DRT 1 9540   Ray does not indicate
121697 - progress on this research, nor theories being considered.
121698 -
121699 -     Might Ray consider presenting Communication Metrics to illustrate
121700 -     what is available now, based on a triad of capabilities...
121701 -
121702 -
121703 -                       tools
121704 -                       management science
121705 -                       leadership
121706 -
121707 -
121708 -     ...because tools alone are not enough to solve the knowledge
121709 -     management dilemma, as explained in the New World Order... paper.
121710 -     ref OF 2 4305  An integrated solution fits the model being pursued
121711 -     by the Management Science department, see 000202. ref SDS 49 4680
121712 -     ..
121713 -     Ray reviewed the NWO... paper and POIMS for our meeting on
121714 -     960723. ref SDS 10 2800   At that time, he commented favorably on
121715 -     the advantage of SDS work product to support management.
121716 -     ref SDS 10 2808  A few months later on 961015, counsel for the San
121717 -     Francisco District Corps of Engineers concurred with Ray's
121718 -     assessment. ref SDS 11 8830
121719 -
121720 -     The Army Corps of Engineers subsequently applied this capability
121721 -     and published several reports on using Communication Metrics that
121722 -     concurred with Ray's initial assessment...
121723 -
121724 -       1.  On 970328 explaining an "intelligence" role. ref DRP 5 6172
121725 -
121726 -           Scope of services shows a new work role for "intelligence,"
121727 -           ref DRP 5 4929, as explained in POIMS. ref OF 1 3943  This
121728 -           new role needs academic training, which Stanford can
121729 -           support.
121730 -           ..
121731 -       2.  On 971007 reporting cost savings. ref DRP 6 0001
121732 -
121733 -     PG&E also reported favorable results. ref DRP 4 8444
121734 -
121735 -     This record indicates Communication Metrics may improve management
121736 -     by expanding span of attention to reduce meaning drift.  More work
121737 -     is needed to help people recognize this opportunity, as reported
121738 -     by Lynn Conway relating the struggle to educate people about VLSI
121739 -     technology which eventually helped Intel and Microsoft flourish,
121740 -     reviewed on 960612. ref SDS 9 1368
121741 -
121742 -     Explaining Communication Metrics in an academic setting enables
121743 -     people to gain experience solving the problem of meaning drift
121744 -     without having to wait for full validation of research.  Early
121745 -     adopters are often willing to try methods that have not been fully
121746 -     validated, but have credible support.  This experience in turn
121747 -     provides input to facilitate the research.
121748 -
121749 -
121750 -
121751 -
1218 -

SUBJECTS
Bootstrap Institute (BI)
Leadership
Organization Management
Communication Issues, Bandwidth Not Enough for Communication
Colloquium, Objectives, Bandwidth Span of Attention Gift of Time
Time Saved So Managers Have Time to Think
Bandwidth Limited Information Overload Not Enough Time Need SDS to Re
5-10% Most People Remember Gist Reading Conversation Events

2911 -
291101 -  ..
291102 - Not Enough Bandwidth nor Time to Get Help
291103 - Doug Engelbart Focusing on Colloquium Grow Movement for DKR Project
291104 -
291105 - Ray does not mention in his letter today Doug's Colloquium, cited in
291106 - my letter yesterday, ref SDS 53 1428, discussing the importance of
291107 - Ray's findings using VDT to the Colloquium, as set out in my letter to
291108 - Ray on 000107. ref SDS 35 0125
291109 -
291110 - Received ref DRT 2 0001 from Doug, saying thanks for notifying Ray
291111 - about the Colloquium in the letter, ref DIP 7 0001, on 000222.
291112 - ref SDS 53 1428
291113 -
291114 -      [On 000301 submitted response. ref SDS 55 0001]
291115 -
291116 -  ..
291117 - Doug mentions my offer on 000113 to help with the Colloquium, or just
291118 - get his correspondence caught up, ref SDS 37 3723, following our
291119 - telecon on 000103. ref SDS 33 0001  He does not mention discussion on
291120 - 991222 about SDS to accomplish his goals for the Colloquium.
291121 - ref SDS 32 F34J
291122 -
291123 -  ..
291124 - Doug appreciated offer to help, he apologizes saying there is not
291125 - enough "bandwidth" to do more than produce the Colloquium.  He is
291126 - focused on getting resources to "grow a movement" with momentum from
291127 - the Colloquim, and hopes to announce an operational platform at the
291128 - final session in two weeks. ref DRT 2 5610
291129 -
291130 -      [On 000315 Henry van Eykan seems to indicate this effort is
291131 -      underway. ref SDS 56 8448
291132 -
291133 -  ..
291134 - "Bandwidth" is shorthand for the knowledge management dilemma of not
291135 - enough time to think, cited at a PMI meeting on 970910, ref SDS 14
291136 - 3479, and explained in POIMS. ref OF 1 0557  However, the real problem
291137 - is not limited time, but rather limited span of attention, because the
291138 - mind cannot manage the full range of subjects and pending matters, as
291139 - explained on 990303. ref SDS 17 6120
291140 -
291141 -      [On 000621 bandwidth still scarce resource. ref SDS 57 5040
291142 -
291143 -      [On 001025 was not enough bandwidth for project contributors to
291144 -      link comments into the OHS launch plan. ref SDS 59 0001
291145 -
291146 -      [On 010111 SDS helps remember information and alignment with
291147 -      relevant history. ref SDS 60 IB9F
291148 -
291149 -  ..
291150 - On 960523 Intel did not have bandwidth to review Communication Metrics
291151 - in order to save time and get things done. ref SDS 8 4933  A year
291152 - later on 970603 Dave Vannier thought there was enough time to improve
291153 - management, but his boss disapproved. ref SDS 13 5803 Two years later,
291154 - on 990907 Dave reported Com Metrics on the Internet accomplishes the
291155 - goals of POIMS. ref SDS 22 0149  But there is still not enough
291156 - bandwidth to get help...
291157 -
291158 -  ..
291159 - Doug's case is a little different, because he has to focus narrowly on
291160 - the Colloquium.  That will conclude in a few weeks, and maybe then
291161 - further consideration can be given to solving the KM problem he is
291162 - thinking about.
291163 -
291164 -
291165 -
291166 -
291167 -
291168 -
291169 -
291170 -
291171 -
291172 -
291173 -
291174 -
291175 -
Distribution. . . . See "CONTACTS"