In a message dated 96-05-10 21:55:38 EDT, you write:
>I submit that the easel upon which to 'picture' the complexity of a
>corporation is not attainable outside of the collective minds of people
>for several reasons;
Here's a reference that will help illustrate what I'm talking about.
Henry Alberts did his PhD dissertation on redesign of the US Defense
Acquisition System--an important subject, since this country spends about
300 billion a year or more on defense, and this spending has world
implications.
Henry worked with 320 program managers over 5 years and developed the full
description of that system. Then they redesigned it. Then they got
Congress to pass the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994, which
totally replaced the old outmoded un-understandable US Code.
Now the question comes: is this work going to go down the drain, because
the Pentagon and the Congress doesn't understand it? Or is it going to be
kept updated? And if it is updated, how is going to be seen physically?
You can see Henry's work at City University in Southampton Square, where
his doctoral dissertation is located. However it's a long way from
Congress and the Pentagon to mid London.
All the dimensions, all the information needed to manage that behemoth is
available but inaccessable. Now if I can find a few people with money and
imagination who don't know that it can't be done, we would rent one of
those expensive, vacant, huge buildings laying around Washington, D. C.,
and install the products of that work in a pedagogic way, so generals and
senators and ordinary humans can walk through this building and get an
education on how that system works, and why things are done the way they
are.
For my next coup, I am trying to find a way to make the same thing happen
for universities. I'm sure the faculty feels the same way as you about
where the easel is located--in their heads--but if I can manage it
somehow, I am going to put it out where the innocent freshman and parents
can see it, and where other faculty can find out what is going on.
Including in the university observatorium will be the current work plan of
every professor, right there for public viewing, and then we will see how
quality can be controlled in higher education.
John N. Warfield
Johnwfield@aol.com
"Remember the WandWaver Solution!"
--Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>