RE: [ba-ohs-talk] Learning Groove
MA - (01)
Thanks for your thoughtful and well-conceived reply. (02)
It is clear that some fringe populations have an ax to grind regarding
*whatever* happens to be the current edition of the pervasive computing and
communications architectures and communications offerings. IBM, MaBell,
Cisco, MS, etc. all answer to the greater good, or die, sooner or later. My
notion is that it is a fruitless effort, particularly when there are bigger
fish to fry. In particular, alignment of the Human System and Tool System
around the Capabilities Infrastructure. As Doug said on Monday at Cal, and
which most of us know already, the social, cultural and political barriers
are far more difficult to overcome than simple technology concerns like
operating systems. (03)
Pursuit of a viable Capabilities Infrastructure demands we embrace the laws
of Moore, Metcalfe and Reed. Therefore, solid innovation strategy targets
the largest socio-technical populations, and is not too concerned with
adjunct computing backwaters. (04)
Thus, instead of shoehorning weak functionality into a thin computing
environment in the name of interoperability for example, it is far better to
really tackle the social and cultural issues using all the capacity that is
available. This is how the future Capabilities Infrastructure is created and
how to boost Collective IQ. (05)
It may seem to you to be as counter-intuitive as Open Systems was to many
executives, pundits and even academics in the early 80s. If not for the
courage of a few at HP, OSF, Open Group, Sun, and, yes, MS, etc., we'd still
be plugging away on 3270s or Vax timeshare. (06)
Look, you know very well that copyright, trademark and patent law exists to
*spur* innovation. 'Proprietariness' is often a necessary evil of the
innovation lifecycle. Don't resist it, embrace it! The advantages to
innovation, diffusion and wealth creation are clear. A lot of what you may
think is 'open' was at one time highly proprietary. Oh, by the way, anything
that stays proprietary inexorably spirals into oblivion. (07)
Get it? (08)
Okay, MS has captured the corporate desktop over the last 10 years based on
a deliberate, highly effective marketing strategy and breathtaking
execution. So what? Frankly, the firm has also emancipated and democratized
computing more than any other company. That's a good thing. Can't say if it
counterbalances all the bad stuff. Let's leave that to the computing
historians and their listservs. (09)
To truly advance the Capabilities Infrastructure it is far more important to
lead balance efforts, than get hung-up with a fine-grain interpretation the
current de facto operating environment, for example. Quite simply, Don
Quixote, it will evolve eventually, too. (010)
Rather, let's focus on the Human/Tool intersection, particularly how the
tool is -used- in a social context, less how it works in a supporting or
operating technology context. That's where the real promise is for boosting
Collective IQ. It is where you'll discover Groove makes a stunning
breakthrough contribution in the spirit of the Capabilities Infrastructure
and CODIAK. (011)
BTW, here's one right back at ya (it's -not- from Bartlett's either...) -- (012)
"We shape our tools and they in turn shape us." (013)
- Marshal McLuhan (014)
Cheers, (015)
jtm (016)