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


S U M M A R Y


DIARY: July 25, 1997 10:00 AM Friday; Rod Welch

Called Tom Landauer on rate of errors in communications.

1...Summary/Objective
2...Studies Measuring Meaning Drift
3...Innovation and Discipline, Conscious v. Subconscious Management

ACTION ITEMS.................. Click here to comment!

1...Landauer, T. K. (1986). How much do people remember: Some
2...If we use standard management practice, then everybody is taking
3...Or, is there a way for creativity to flourish by using technology to

CONTACTS 
0201 - University of Colorado             303 492 2875 fax or 800...
020101 - Mr. Thomas K. Landauer

SUBJECTS
Calculate Cost Benefit Communication
Errors in Communication
Meaning, Build and Maintain Shared, Over
Cognitive Science, Meetings
Fragility of Knowledge, Fades
Maintain Shared Meaning/Knowledge

1808 -    ..
1809 - Summary/Objective
1810 -
181001 - Followed up work at ref SDS 21 0000, ref SDS 19 0000.
181002 -
181003 - Left another message following message on 970715, ref SDS 19 0000, my
181004 - email, ref DIP 5 0000, submitted last week at ref SDS 16 0000, for Tom
181005 - to call about studies showing the rate of meaning drift, errors or
181006 - differences in understandings from common events like meetings, calls,
181007 - discussions that follows up my calculation begun last week on 970711.
181008 - ref SDS 18 0000
181009 -
181010 -       [On 980813 notified Tom about Communication Metrics web site.
181011 -       ref SDS 25 0000]
181012 -
181013 - Cited unsuccessful research on 970715 using the web. ref SDS 20 0000.
181014 -
181015 - Finally was able to talk to Tom briefly.
181016 -
181017 - He is preparing for a trip next week and he will not return until
181018 - September.  I got the impression he did not want to visit with me
181019 - about his work.
181020 -
181021 - Tom suggested checking the references in his LSA paper and if there is
181022 - nothing there, then check the web site mentioned in the paper.
181023 -
181024 -
1811 -
1812 -
1813 - 1231 research on Web
1814 -
181401 - I checked his LSA paper on the point from the record for 960518
181402 - concerning mental knowledge processes at ref SDS 6 4488, and also at
181403 - ref SDS 6 3734.  There are no apparent references on this point.
181404 -
181405 - There is at ref OF 1 line 2683, a book, article or paper by Tom
181406 - Landauer in the references on
181407 -
181408 -       Landauer, T. K. (1986). How much do people remember: Some
181409 -       estimates of the quantity of learned information in long-term
181410 -       memory. Cognitive Science, 10(4), 477-493.
181411 -
181412 -    This might be worth reviewing.
181413 -
181414 -       Osgood, C. E., Suci, G. J., & Tannenbaum, P. H. (1957). The
181415 -       measurement of meaning. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
181416 -
181417 -       Ratcliff, R., & McKoon, G. (1978). Priming in item recognition:
181418 -       Evidence for the propositional nature of sentences. Journal of
181419 -       Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 17, 403-417.
181420 -
181421 - I could not find any reference to a web page in Tom's paper, but I
181422 - located a site for Latent Semantic Analysis using a search engine.
181423 -
181424 - Looks like this site has plenty of possibilities for doing the
181425 - research I need.
181426 -
181427 -
181428 -
181429 -  ..
1815 -
1816 -
1817 - 2132 sent Tom Email from Web Site
1818 -
181801 - Prepared ref DIT 1 to advise Tom I found his Web site for LSA, but was
181802 - unable to find any support for the hypothesis that word meanings are
181803 - fluid and are in constant flux, from the review of Tom's paper, ref
181804 - SDS 6 4488, and at ref SDS 6 3734.
181805 -
181806 - I also sent a similar letter to Tom's colleague, Walter Kintsch.
181807 -
181808 -       [On 970729 reveived response from Tom, ref SDS 23 0000, and from
181809 -       Walter, ref SDS 23 5739]
181810 -
181811 -       [On 980813 notified Tom about Communication Metrics web site.
181812 -       ref SDS 25 0000]
181813 -
181814 -
181815 -  ..
181816 - Studies Measuring Meaning Drift
181817 -
181818 - I asked if there has been specific research on the rate of deviation
181819 - in understandings among participants of common events such as a
181820 - business meeting, ref DIT 1 9333.
181821 -
181822 - I pose a number of different criteria for a study by interviewing
181823 - people after a business meeting and comparing their understandings of
181824 - what transpired.
181825 -
181826 - Each person's understanding will be different, per Cal Tech seminar
181827 - publication about communication reviewed on 940111, ref SDS 3 2074. It
181828 - reflects Eric Jennet's article reviewed on 940114 showing business
181829 - meetings are unproductive, ref SDS 4 2290.
181830 -
181831 -     What is the rate of change in understanding as a function of...
181832 -
181833 -       1.  number of subjects,
181834 -       2.  time of discusison in hours
181835 -       3.  number of participants
181836 -       4.  time people talk, listen, write notes in minutes
181837 -       5.  time people prepare prior to meeting in minutes
181838 -       6.  degree and strength of contention
181839 -
181840 -     There is then a propogation of misunderstanding among various
181841 -     populations, e.g., a subcontractor, a vendor, the engineering
181842 -     department, sales and so on.
181843 -
181844 -
181845 -
181846 -  ..
1819 -
1820 -
1821 - 1613 Analysis
1822 -
182201 - Innovation and Discipline, Conscious v. Subconscious Management
182202 -
182203 - Follow up work at ref SDS 22 8699.
182204 -
182205 - Tie together empowerment and entropy in information.
182206 -
182207 -    The AFIT paper reviewed on 970707 says that lack of discipline
182208 -    causes information systems to become entropic and that this
182209 -    escalates cost. ref SDS 15 0108
182210 -
182211 -    The Intel paper reviewed on 970710 says that empowerment to support
182212 -    innovation leads to poor management. ref SDS 17 2009
182213 -
182214 - If we use standard management practice, then everybody is taking
182215 - common paths and this reduces the chance for meaning to wander, but it
182216 - also limits creativity.
182217 -
182218 - Or, is there a way for creativity to flourish by using technology to
182219 - automate and integrate sound management practice under the Management
182220 - Cycle in POIMS, so that people can invest intellectual capital that
182221 - provides a resource for discovering new directions?
182222 -
182223 - In other words we have to sow the seeds in order to get a crop of
182224 - ideas to come up.  For management, this requires capturing the record
182225 - in order to have something to assemlbe in alternte ways that yields
182226 - innovation.
182227 -
182228 -     [On 971222 Andy Grove was interviewed and noted the challenge of
182229 -     leadership to maintain discipline while encouraging innovation.
182230 -     ref SDS 24 6695]
182231 -
182232 -
182233 -
182234 -
182235 -
182236 -
1823 -
Distribution. . . . See "CONTACTS"