The Source of Human Capability

1
Improving Our Ability to Improve A Call for
Investment in a New Future Large scale
Facilitated Evolution Of our Improvement
Infrastructure
Dr. Douglas C. Engelbart Bootstrap Alliance,
USA www.bootstrap.org
2
The World in the 21st CenturyCreating the
Infocomm Future
Proposing our Shared Strategic Objectives

• Building New Capabilities and Leveraging
  Innovation for Key Growth Areas
• Using Infocomm Technologies to Build New
  Capability and Capacity
• Being Proactive and Responsive
• Re-inventing Government in the Digital Economy

these objectives are the focus of my talk
3
My goal this lecture ...
is to help you see these objectives in a new
light, understanding them as truly

• long term
• deeply strategic
• transformative
• open ended

4
A What If Experiment
Imagine that it is the late 1980s

• the Internet exists (the basic capability to
  support the Web is already in place)
• but the World Wide Web is still in the future
• which means that the field is open for Your
  Organization or Your Country to take a leading
  position in the technical revolution that is
  about to happen

What would your organization or your country
need to be doing to grasp this opportunity?
5
Not an idle question ...
The real impact of the Net and Web is just
beginning to be felt. Some candidate next big
things

• the Semantic Web
• the shift in the value of content
• ubiquitous computing

How can your organization learn enough, fast
enough, to grasp the next transformative
opportunity?
6
Disruptive Innovation
as described by Clayton Christensen - The
Innovators Dilemma
Existing Capability
Requirements of Established Market
Increased capability always outruns typical
requirements
7
Disruptive Innovation
as described by Clayton Christensen - The
Innovators Dilemma
New Capability
New Requirements in new, emerging market
Disruptive innovations start out offering less
capability
8
Disruptive Innovation
as described by Clayton Christensen - The
Innovators Dilemma
Disruption Starts Here
But, over time, the new innovation can meet
established market requirements, displacing
existing market market structure
9
Disruptive Innovation
as described by Clayton Christensen - The
Innovators Dilemma
Innovations thatNever find a market
Of course, not all emerging innovations work out

10
Back to our WWW example ...
The challenge for your organization

• acquire the capability in the disruptive
  innovations
• invest broadly enough to encompass disruptive
  innovations as well as innovations that dont
  move forward
• avoid getting boxed in with established
  approaches

11

• Building New Capabilities
• Being Pro-active

Understood broadly, goals of building new
capability and being proactive can address
this challenge -- but only if placed within a
structure of planned, facilitated evolution of
your organization or your countrys collective
ability.
A plan to boost Collective IQ
How to do this?
12
Agenda

• Some Key Distinctions, Terms, and Ideas
• Augmentation Systems and Co-evolution
• The ABCs of Improvement Infrastructure
• Collective Effort and Collective IQ
• Scale Issues
• Networked Improvement Communities
• Functional Requirements
• Application to Your Organization
• The Bootstrap Alliance

13
Agenda

• Some Key Distinctions, Terms, and Ideas
• Augmentation vs. Automation
• Human vs. Mechanistic
• Growing Knowledge Professionals
• Capabilities Infrastructure
• Human Systems and Tool Systems
• Co-evolution

14
Augment vs. Automate

• Automate
• Its why we use computers today
• Replace us in work we used to do
• Augment
• As the plow augmented our ability to cultivate
• Extend us to solve problems we have not been
  able to address yet, to take on work
  we need to do
• Despite US Billions invested in computer
  development,
• recent events sadly have reminded us of what we
  cant do..

15
An Example GDINThe Global Disaster Information
Network

• Disasters require collaborative response
• To respond to disasters
• Which can range from small to VAST SCALE
• new teams of strangers collaborate
• must learn to adapt
• ingest and act on new information quickly
• Its Very Hard to Automate
• getting Right Information
• at Right Time
• to the Right Place
• globally to Ad Hoc teams

16
Infrastructure of Capabilities Example An
Internet Service Provider
Capability to operate an ISP
Capability to providecustomer support
Capability to plan for growth
Capability to handlebilling for use
Capability to speak, read, write, give and follow
directions, fit into culture
Capability to highbandwidth access
Higher Levels Depend on Lower Levels
17
Extended CapabilitiesDepend in turn on Tool
System
Tool System
Media Portray Travel, View Study Manipulate Retrie
ve Compute Communicate
Consider the impact of the invention of the tool
The Plow
18
Impact of the Plow

• Hunter Gatherer nomadic lives changed
• Plow allowed settling down
• Lead to importance of land ownership
• Inheritance laws
• Villages Towns Cities
• Commerce, Social Cultural Life sprang up
• Each addition to Tool System leads to changes in
  the Human System

19
Human System Appeared before the Artifacts
(tools) did
Tool System
Media Portray Travel, View Study Manipulate Retrie
ve Compute Communicate
In the 20th Century the worlds work began
shifting from Agriculture to Manufacturing. In
the 21st Century, to Knowledge
20
Co-Evolution of the Human and Tool System

• The Plow didnt automate existing work it
  augmented humans ability, opened possibilities
• Think about the invention of
• Spoken Language
• Alphabet
• Printing Press
• All changed the human system over 100s of years
  and triggered the invention of more tools
• Triggering changes in human paradigms and culture
• Triggering more tools and so on

21
Agenda

• Some Key Distinctions, Terms, and Ideas
• Augmentation Systems and Co-evolution
• The ABCs of Improvement Infrastructure
• Collective Effort and Collective IQ
• Scale Issues
• Networked Improvement Communities
• Functional Requirements
• Application to Your Organization
• The Bootstrap Alliance

22
The Augmentation SystemAugments Basic Human
Capabilities
Tool System
Media Portray Travel, View Study Manipulate Retrie
ve Compute Communicate
Skills Training Conditioning
Sensory Perception Motor Mental Skills
Human Interface
23
Augmentation vs. Automationof Human Capabilities

• Start from basic human ability
• Sensory Perception
• Mental Skills
• Motor Skills
• Add
• Skills
• Training
• Conditioning.

Human System
CapabilityInfrastructure
Tool System
Media Portray Travel, View Study Manipulate Retrie
ve Compute Communicate
Paradigms Organization Procedures Customs Methods
Language Attitudes
Skills Training Conditioning
Sensory Perception Motor Mental Skills
Our basic human abilities harnessed the plow.
Millennia later .who could have imagined the
changes? Digital Technology offers so much
flexibility, as we start to Harness it, its
clear We have a long long way to go
24
Why Co-Evolution?
Human System

• We need to
• develop new ways to share knowledge in
• the Human System
• extend the Tool System
• extend the Capability Infrastructure

CapabilityInfrastructure
Tool System
Paradigms Organization Procedures Customs Methods
Language Attitudes
Media Portray Travel, View Study Manipulate Retrie
ve Compute Communicate
Skills Training Conditioning
Sensory Perception Motor Mental Skills
Moving forward on all of these fronts
concurrently as they feed back to each other
goes beyond our ability to design It is a
PROCESS that EVOLVES
25
Improvement Infrastructure for New,
Discontinuous Innovation

• Requires conscious collective investment
• Requires whole Augmentation system perspective -
  human and tool co-evolution
• Over 50 years ago,
• I saw the frontier differently from those around
  me

26
The Worlds Organizations in Human-Tool Space
Where is your Organization?
20 Years
Anticipatable
Today
Human System Development
20 Years
Tool System Utilization
27
Co-Evolution Frontier Outposts and Scouts
20 Years
Pioneering Organization
Anticipatable
20 Years
Today
Human System Development
Outposts Scouts to Scout out the Frontier
Tool System Utilization
28
Tools and Means for High Performance Teams

• Equip teams to gear up for high performance,
  high leverage, group-capability enhancing work
• Knowledge Containers with a high degree of
  mobility and knowledge transferability
• Integration of historic, current,
  geographically dispersed knowledge
• Contests for best Knowledge teams
• Compete to set up best Knowledge models

29
Developing Knowledge Pros a Learned skill
like reading

• What does it take to Grow Novices to Pros
• Develop skills till theyre done unconsciously
• Coaching
• Role models
• Purposeful usage
• Real goals that stretch abilities
• Strategic Frameworks that ease the learning
• Start from regular work, evolve in smooth stages
• Provide choices Entry level to Pro level
  knowledge tools

30
Agenda

• Some Key Distinctions, Terms, and Ideas
• Augmentation Systems and Co-evolution
• The ABCs of Improvement Infrastructure
• Collective Effort and Collective IQ
• Scale Issues
• Networked Improvement Communities
• Functional Requirements
• Application to Your Organization
• The Bootstrap Alliance

31
ABCs of Improvement InfrastructureHow can we
improve our ability to improve?
Customer
A

• A Activity - serves the customer

Core Business Activity

• B Activity - improves product cycle time and
  quality

B
Improves A Capability
Organization
32
Readying the Organization for Frontier
Penetration -- more complete picture.

• C Activity - improves improvement cycle time and
  quality

33
Investing in A B and C Activities

• A activity improved productivity comes from
  investment made in B activities
• B investments fund most of the new activities
  in developing IT infrastructure
• How to maximize the Payoff
• from investment in B activities?
• We are asking how we improve our ability to
  improve
• C investments which scope out the frontier,
  define metrics, drive improved productivity in
  the B activity

34
Is your organizationan Example of C Work ?

• Discuss write about Prospects for changes
• Why argue for this or that change?
• How to go about proposing changes?
• Review goals, scenarios, plans
• Think about setting up prototypes, pilot
  operations
• Develop assessments, metrics
• Consider tools to Augment C Work
• Collect Integrate Knowledge
• Build Knowledge Repository Distribute Access

35
Invest Wisely in ImprovementDont Go It Alone,
Look for Other Organizations on the Frontier
Heading the Same Way . . .
Customers
Customers
Customers
...
A
A
A
Org 2
Org n
Org 1
B
B
C
C
C
. . improving a similar set of capabilities
36
Agenda

• Some Key Distinctions, Terms, and Ideas
• Augmentation Systems and Co-evolution
• The ABCs of Improvement Infrastructure
• Collective Effort and Collective IQ
• Scale Issues
• Networked Improvement Communities
• Functional Requirements
• Application to Your Organization
• The Bootstrap Alliance

37
Why Collective Investment is Critical Because of
Complexity
38
Collective IQ An especially Important Untapped
Capability
External Environment
Ingesting
Interacting
Scanning
Dynamic Knowledge Repository
Concurrently Integrating Collaborating Developing
Learning (Re)using
Recorded Dialog
Intelligence Collection
Knowledge Product
39
Agenda

• Some Key Distinctions, Terms, and Ideas
• Augmentation Systems and Co-evolution
• The ABCs of Improvement Infrastructure
• Collective Effort and Collective IQ
• Scale Issues
• Networked Improvement Communities
• Functional Requirements
• Application to Your Organization
• The Bootstrap Alliance

40

Concurrency and Interoperability
6000 Companies, Concurrently Evolving their
Knowledge Repositories Designing,
Developing, Tracking Progress and Changes then
add,customers, teaming partners...
Aerospace Firm
(2000 people)
41
In the US, the Office of Homeland Response
prepared a chart of the organizations involved in
responding to Chemical and Biological Warfare
threats. This organizational structure - not
unusual for sophisticated organizations and
ambitious cooperative efforts, illustrates how
complexity scales up. Uggrh!
42
Huge strategic factor The matter of SCALE!

• The scale of the capability-evolution challenge
  transcends what any one company, any one Explicit
  Plan, could formulate and accomplish.
• So, get serious about developing an appropriate
  Evolutionary Environment!
• Perhaps even, about evolving an appropriate
  Evolutionary Environment?

43
Agenda

• Some Key Distinctions, Terms, and Ideas
• Augmentation Systems and Co-evolution
• The ABCs of Improvement Infrastructure
• Collective Effort and Collective IQ
• Scale Issues
• Networked Improvement Communities
• Functional Requirements
• Application to Your Organization
• The Bootstrap Alliance

44
What is an Improvement Community ?A C Community
C Community
Common challenges, issues, requirements Share
advice, strategies, lessons learned Common
Customer Group -- the Bs
Each C member actively serves their respective
B initiatives
45
What is a Networked Improvement Community ?Or NIC
...
C 1
C n
C 2
Networked Improvement Community A C Community
that is an explicit pilot-practitioner of the
best Collective IQ capability the community can
muster
Dynamic Knowledge Repository
Bootstrapping
C
C
C
46
Agenda

• Some Key Distinctions, Terms, and Ideas
• Augmentation Systems and Co-evolution
• The ABCs of Improvement Infrastructure
• Collective Effort and Collective IQ
• Scale Issues
• Networked Improvement Communities
• Functional Requirements
• Application to Your Organization
• The Bootstrap Alliance

47
Dynamic Knowledge RepositoriesCentral to
Explicitly Tapping Collective IQ

• In a structured navigable way, keep track of
• Recorded Dialog
• External Intelligence Collection
• Knowledge Product
• Integration Tough Hard Problem
• Within purposeful working environments involving
  diverse people in multiple organizations
• Concurrency Tough Hard Problem
• If our two organizations have interdependencies,
  then my Repository needs to concur with yours
  within our cooperation domain

48
CODIAK

• COncurrent
• Development
• Integration
• Application of
• Knowledge

49
(No Transcript)
50
The Tool-System Target -- an Open Hyperdocument
System (OHS)

• Critical Requirement Establishing an initial,
  OHS-Launch Base upon which to start serious
  co-evolution.
• Basic architecture and implementation must enable
  smooth transition to very large-scale evolution
  of document properties and system functionality.
• Critical Must enable smooth transitioning from
  legacy systems as shift work dependence onto OHS.

51

Concurrency and Interoperability
6000 Companies, Concurrently Evolving their
Knowledge Repositories Designing,
Developing, Tracking Progress and Changes then
add,customers, teaming partners...
Aerospace Firm
(2000 people)
52
Stage-1 OHS-HyperScope Browsing -- Over a wide
variety of legacy files High-resolution linking
many viewing options.
Target Servers
Families of view Transcoders
Families of Translators
Browser
Intermediate I-File Extended XML properties,
incl. much newAddr. tagging.
View Generator
Equipped with minimal set of new user controls
Link db
And also, hi-resolution linking to audio, video
...
53
Agenda

• Some Key Distinctions, Terms, and Ideas
• Augmentation Systems and Co-evolution
• The ABCs of Improvement Infrastructure
• Collective Effort and Collective IQ
• Scale Issues
• Networked Improvement Communities
• Functional Requirements
• Application to Your Organization
• The Bootstrap Alliance

54
The World in the 21st CenturyCreating the
Infocomm Future
Proposing our Shared Strategic Objectives

• Building New Capabilities and Leveraging
  Innovation for Key Growth Areas
• Using Infocomm Technologies to Build New
  Capability and Capacity
• Being Proactive and Responsive
• Re-inventing Government in the Digital Economy

lets view these goals in terms of facilitated
evolution
55
Critical Factor Concurrent Evolution of
Societys Dynamic Knowledge Repositories

DKRs
Concurrency Scaling Up -- actually, to global
scope.
56
Key Ideas for Your Organization

• Innovation is NOT chaotic -- you can put in place
  a plan for facilitation
• Success is collective
• This approach applies not just to IT, but to
  shipping, governmental operation, and collective
  IQ in general
• An organization or even an economy that learns to
  do this well will grow across all sectors

57
Agenda

• Some Key Distinctions, Terms, and Ideas
• Augmentation Systems and Co-evolution
• The ABCs of Improvement Infrastructure
• Collective Effort and Collective IQ
• Scale Issues
• Networked Improvement Communities
• Functional Requirements
• Application to Your Organization
• The Bootstrap Alliance

58
Why Bootstrapping?

• Work on getting better at what youre doing..
• Do it with others on the same improvement vector
• Then youll ALL be even better at getting better

• Weve started with a community
• That is focused on providing the tools
• That enable other communities to improve

59
The Bootstrap Alliance - a MetaNIC NICs
collectively improving their NIC capabilities
Member Orgs
Member Orgs
Member Orgs
NIC 1
NIC n
NIC 2
...
Bootstrap Alliance
Dynamic Knowledge Repository
B
B
B
Bootstrapping
C
C
C
Improvement Engineering Assessment Metrics
Members Governance Committee
Standards Working Group
Through Software.org, the Software Productivity
Consortium
60
Bootstrap Alliance

• An Improvement Community made up of Networked
  Improvement Communities
• Improving our capability to improve
• Framework of Tools designed to co-evolve
• Collectively work to augment human capabilities
• Focal point for global improvement communities

61
Improving Our Ability to Improve A Call for
Investment in a New Future Large scale
Facilitated Evolution Of our Improvement
Infrastructure
Dr. Douglas C. Engelbart Bootstrap Alliance,
USA www.bootstrap.org