CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
SDS Marketing, Sales Contacts
Notes, Lotus & IBM, 910625
Ethics

0505 -
0505 -    ..
0506 - Summary/Objective
0507 -
050701 - Follow up ref SDS 5 0000.
050702 -
050703 - Left another message on Ross' voice mail.
050705 -  ..
050706 - Called back and got the information needed.  Ross raised a question of
050707 - ethics.  Discussed using OS2 clipboard.
050709 -  ..
050710 - Turned out there is mention of Lotus Notes use in the HBR article
050711 - reviewed on 940710. ref SDS 7 0730
050712 -
050713 -    [Later submitted portions of this record on "ethics" to professor
050714 -    at Harvard who wrote in HBR on this topic, per ref SDS 9 9391]
050715 -
050716 -    [On 940519 followed up on LN issue at ref SDS 8 9828]
050717 -
050719 -  ..
0508 -
0509 -
0510 - 2130 called Ross back
0511 -
051101 - He got the information from PROFS.
051102 -
051103 -          Robin R. Shalosky     602 217 2069
051104 -          Personal Systems Specialist
051105 -
051106 -   ...who commented as follows:
051107 -
051108 -      We love it and use it heavily in Phoenix, especially with the new
051109 -      mobile roll-out.  We have in excess of 25 data bases that we
051110 -      use. I wrote most of them.
051111 -
051113 -  ..
051114 - Market Research Ethics
051115 -
051116 - Ross expressed concern about my asking Robin for information in a way
051117 - that causes her to believe I am evaluating a purchase of Lotus Notes,
051118 - and then use the information without her knowledge to encourage a
051119 - prospective customer to buy SDS.
051121 -  ..
051122 - We explored this concern, and concluded with the expectation that I
051123 - will handle this matter correctly.
051124 -
051125 -     I am not sure about Ross' point.  He could be cautioning against
051126 -     obtaining information under false pretense, which might also be
051127 -     called "mis-appropriating information."  Our discussion indicated
051128 -     there is no harm in asking for product information that is
051129 -     available in advertising, nor in seeking clarification of scope
051130 -     and implementation.
051132 -      ..
051133 -     Of course I want to stretch the vendor rep to identify the outer
051134 -     edges of the capability it feels Lotus Notes has, and then to test
051135 -     those representations by talking to end users.  If the rep cites
051136 -     itself as the only end user, then I would inquire with some care
051137 -     about details of the implementation, vis a vis SDS.  I might even
051138 -     mention SDS, and say I am using it and it can do thus and so; how
051139 -     can I accomplish this and more with Lotus Notes?
051141 -      ..
051142 -     So far, I do not have any great qualms about the discussion,
051143 -     except to the extent the vendor is investing time to make a sale
051144 -     that will not occur.  On the other hand, the vendor rep may well
051145 -     gain new and helpful perspective on its product as a result of the
051146 -     dialog, i.e. the vendor is not entirely unrewarded.  In simplest
051147 -     terms, I want some information.  Robin may be able to provide it,
051148 -     but would refuse, if told that all I want is information, and the
051149 -     information may be used in a way that causes in whole or in part a
051150 -     potential customer to avoid buying Lotus Notes.  Another way to
051151 -     evaluate the matter is by asking if someone called me for informa-
051152 -     tion about SDS for the same reason I am inquiring about Lotus
051153 -     Notes.  Actually this occurred with a customer in Washington D.C.
051154 -     in 1991, per ref SDS 2 line 33.  A consultant obtained information
051155 -     about SDS, so they could make a proposal to sell Expedition.  I
051156 -     did not know of this intent prospectively, but expect I would have
051157 -     been just as happy for the opportunity to explain the advantages
051158 -     of SDS, as I would be today, if someone called to ask about the
051159 -     wonders of SDS, though perhaps not.  If the occasion yielded
051160 -     information that enabled me to compete more strongly, even if no
051161 -     sale occurred, there would be residual benefit.  That seems to me
051162 -     to be the core issue, and it relates to level of effort made to
051163 -     improve understanding.  Lotus Notes really does not compete with
051164 -     SDS anyway.  They are complimentary.
051166 -      ..
051167 -     It might be incorrect to submit the vendor's comments to a
051168 -     prospective SDS customer without indicating to the rep my intent
051169 -     to do so in advance.  Suppose, however, I praise Lotus Notes to my
051170 -     customer, as I have done on other occasions, saying it does some
051171 -     important tasks well, and SDS does some other tasks well.  Actual-
051172 -     ly, I might be inclined to make this direct pitch and ask Robin to
051173 -     let me know her ideas about how Lotus Notes can be applied in
051174 -     conjunction with SDS.  The problem with this is that Lotus Notes
051175 -     is marketed as performing SDS functionality, which it cannot do.
051176 -     This would place Robin in a difficult position of formulating an
051177 -     interface which her product advertises is unnecessary.
051179 -      ..
051180 -     In any event, my intent is to avoid harming Ross, IBM or Robin,
051181 -     while accomplishing the objective of learning about Lotus Notes.
051182 -
051184 -  ..
051185 - This is an interesting "ethical" question, which likely comes up in
051186 - personnel training within large organizations.  I mentioned to Ross
051187 - the article in the Mar-Apr 1994 HBR, on ethics, reviewed at ref SDS 7
051188 - line 74.  This record offers an early occasion to implement (i.e.
051189 - recycle), the prior analysis, and shows it can be time consuming to
051190 - figure out the "right thing."  How many managers can really do this,
051191 - and then get back what was considered, decided and why, in order to
051192 - achieve consistent application of good ideas.  Good intentions do not
051193 - by themselves yield good results.
051195 -  ..
051196 - This can be accomplished in SDS by creating the above record, connect-
051197 - ing it up to related information, and assigning it to the subject:
051198 -
051199 -              Personnel, Training, Management Skills, Ethics,
051200 -              Market Research Policy & Practice
051201 -              Market Research Strategies
051202 -                 Competitor Inquiries
051203 -
051204 - ...something that cannot be done in Lotus Notes, or by any other
051205 - means, as noted in the other HBR article on Information Technology, at
051206 - ref SDS 7 line 228.
051208 -  ..
051209 - Actually, this might be a market for SDS: the need to figure out
051210 - ethical conduct, and make it readily available when needed.
051211 -
051212 -
051213 -
0513 -

SUBJECTS
SDS Marketing, Sales Contacts
Organizer, 921106

0604 -
060501 -  ..
060502 - Ross said he is making good progress with Organizer.  He wants to
060503 - transfer information between applications under OS2.
060505 -  ..
060506 - I explained how to use the OS2 clip board, to transfer text from any
060507 - screen, e.g. a PROFS message, or any application running under OS2, to
060508 - an ASCII file, like an SDS record (like this one).
060509 -
060511 -    ..
060512 -   OS2 Clip Board
060513 -
060514 -   1.  Click the button in top left corner to open OS2 menu box
060515 -
060516 -   2.  Click about 2/3 way down on "Mark"
060517 -
060518 -   3.  Position the cursor on the top left corner of the text to be
060519 -       transferred; press the left mouse button and "drag" the pointer
060520 -       to highlight all of the text to be transferred (which can only
060521 -       cover a single screen).
060523 -        ..
060524 -   4.  Open the OS2 menu box again, and click "Copy".
060526 -        ..
060527 -   5.  Open the application and file where you want to put the
060528 -       transferred text, and position the cursor in that application
060529 -       where you want to enter the text.
060531 -        ..
060532 -   6.  Open the OS2 menu box, and click "Paste".
060534 -  ..
060535 - This requires that both applications be in window mode, not Full
060536 - Screen.
060537 -
060538 -
060539 -
0606 -

SUBJECTS
Library Organize Records Management Filing Cabinets Secretary
Encyclopedia Organize Personal Organizational Memory
Encyclopedia Ontology Knowledge Organization Representation Subjects
Library Ontology Knowledge Organization Representation Subjects Cata
Cost Benefit of Better Communications
Sales Presentation Ideas
Intelligence Overwhelming Overkill Shocking Not Necessary for Succes
Learn SDS Complex Hope Don't Have to Learn Another Program Rely on H
Encyclopedia Metaphor for SDS Leveraging the Power of Knowledge Does
Faith Encyclopedia History Dideroit Voltair Launched in 1710 Metapho
Front-end Investment Difficult Managers to Make, Wideman
Methods for Presentations
Encyclopedia SDS Organizes Personal Organizational Memory
Encyclopedia Diderot Voltaire DKR Effort

3116 -
311701 -  ..
311702 - Encyclopedia Metaphor for SDS Leveraging the Power of Knowledge
311703 -
311704 - Ross asked about the correlation between selling encyclopedias in 1963
311705 - and selling SDS today?
311707 -  ..
311708 - This is an insightful question that yields a theory of knowledge for
311709 - concurrent discovery that enables proactive management, explained in
311710 - NWO. ref OF 14 5L7N  Background on 931005 shows people have difficulty
311711 - grasping the process of intelligence support for proactive management.
311712 - ref SDS 4 0001
311714 -  ..
311715 - Encyclopedias summarize knowledge from established history stored in a
311716 - library.  These tradtional repositories of knowledge help people make
311717 - sense of complex experience with stories that explain correlations,
311718 - implications, and nuance to understand connections of cause and
311719 - effect.  Organization of history stored in libraries and encyclopedias
311720 - accomplish knowledge management to quickly find stories that are
311721 - relevant to particular context.
311723 -  ..
311724 - Typically, libraries use dewey decimal organization that comprises a
311725 - simple taxonomy which often reflects curriculum for subjects offered
311726 - in formal education.
311727 -
311728 -            http://www.tnrdlib.bc.ca/dewey.html#500
311730 -         ..
311731 -        [On 950204 developed idea of encyclopedia. ref SDS 12 3994]
311733 -         ..
311734 -        [On 960620 developed concept of Knowledge Space. ref SDS 16
311735 -        3516
311737 -         ..
311738 -        [On 040609 reviewed alphabet technology for constructing
311739 -        external rendering of internal memory. ref SDS 10 8854
311741 -         ..
311742 -        [On 971021 installed SDS on the Internet for anytime, anywhere
311743 -        intelligence support, that further leverages personal knowledge
311744 -        by scaling up to everyone. ref SDS 18 O25H
311746 -         ..
311747 -        [On 010907 people are using knowledge in SDS for solving
311748 -        problems, extending the original goal for an encyclopedia to
311749 -        broaden the power of knowledge. ref SDS 19 0P8P
311751 -  ..
311752 - The encyclopedia was first published in 1764, after a 20 year effort
311753 - by Voltaire, Diderot and others to assemble money and resources for
311754 - publishing a compendium of knowledge about the world:  science, art,
311755 - finance, agriculture, liturature, industry, etc.  The project had many
311756 - interruptions due to lack of money, but eventually was completed
311757 - because a few people had faith in the power of knowledge.  Just about
311758 - 100 years later in 1850, governments began requiring and supporting
311759 - universal public eduation.  Teaching a wider body of people to read
311760 - and write grew the market for source material, like encylcopedias, and
311761 - expanded the pool of people adding to the world's knowledge.  Synergy
311762 - from increasing literacy skills and expanding knowledge led to
311763 - accelerated growth of civilization over the next 100 years or so.
311765 -  ..
311766 - As a result, by the time I came along in 1963, the encyclopedia was
311767 - pretty well established.  People "knew" the value of the encyclopedia
311768 - in the same way Western Civilization had acquired knowledge over a
311769 - 5,000 year history that reading and writing is valuable.
311770 -
311771 -     History of the encyclopedia arose from recently reading the Age of
311772 -     Voltair by Will Durant.
311773 -
311774 -            [On 950114 history of encyclopedia was later received on CD
311775 -            ref SDS 11 0001
311777 -  ..
311778 - Development of SDS was begun in the 1980's, and continues, and so is
311779 - not yet similarly positioned.  Nobody knows SDS is valuable because
311780 - nobody has experience with it.  They cannot recall anyone in school, a
311781 - parent, a friend at a party, nor can they turn to a respected mentor
311782 - nor to anyone else who can tell them it is a good idea to invest their
311783 - time and money in a technology that integrates time and information to
311784 - connect cause and effect that predicts the future, because these are
311785 - new capabilities.  Thus, people see immediate costs in terms of
311786 - learning a new skill, but only prospective benefits, and so lack faith
311787 - in SDS (see analysis of faith reviewing Covey's work on 921205.
311788 - ref SDS 3 4803
311790 -  ..
311791 - Selling encyclopedias in 1963 was interesting, even though the
311792 - reasoning and power of the presentation was not appreciated by a young
311793 - mind.  As well, I was not mindful at that time that in knocking on a
311794 - door my efforts were backed by the struggle of thousands of others
311795 - over a 200 year history, launched by the vision of Voltaire and
311796 - Diderot, that imparted faith in people to invest in the knowledge of
311797 - others contained within an encyclopedia.
311799 -  ..
311800 - Today, I seem to be pioneering a new vision, that requires educating
311801 - people about the value of their own knowledge and ideas. This is
311802 - harder than I imagined, as reported on 890324 SDS capability viewed as
311803 - avoiding problems, but overkill. ref SDS 1 6894
311804 -
311805 -      [On 950204 SDS capability viewed as overkill. ref SDS 13 5932,
311807 -       ..
311808 -      [On 960620 defined Knowledge Space that uses technology to help
311809 -      people create a real time encyclopedia of connected information
311810 -      that provides knowledge and ideas for daily work. ref SDS 16 3516
311812 -  ..
311813 - Thomas Davenport comments in the HBR (Mar-Apr 1994 p. 131; analysed on
311814 - 940510, ref SDS 7 WH6M), on the need to educate organizations about
311815 - the benefits of Groupware tools like Lotus Notes, which automates the
311816 - distribution of documents. ref SDS 7 0965  He cites research showing
311817 - that documents take-up about 1/3 of a manager's time, and 2/3 involve
311818 - talking to people, e.g. meetings, phone calls. ref SDS 7 0034
311820 -  ..
311821 - Since SDS automates the entire management process, it would seem to
311822 - require a greater educational effort.
311824 -  ..
311825 - Actually, the task is subtle.
311827 -  ..
311828 - Managers intuitively recognize their work is an integrating craft that
311829 - thrives on diversity.  Selling SDS requires selling the idea that
311830 - effective automation requires a means to exercise the talent of
311831 - melding diverse forces into a harmoni- ous whole, i.e. linking time,
311832 - information, people, documents and objectives, to create the knowledge
311833 - and ideas mangers need.  Just automating documents, or time, or
311834 - contacts, hardly helps at all.  Tasks and functions must be integrated
311835 - to work smoothly together, so that each helps the other, in order for
311836 - technology to help people think, remember, and communication more
311837 - effectively.
311839 -  ..
311840 - But managers don't know this, and neither does anyone else, because it
311841 - all takes place in the human mind.  The market is learning through the
311842 - pain of trial and error, that automating just pieces of "management"
311843 - does not improve the "art" of management, because it does not improve
311844 - human acuity, which is what is needed.  The scars of dashed hopes
311845 - after a few weeks or months trying products from first line vendors,
311846 - calcify a chastened market against even the notion of automated
311847 - management.
311849 -  ..
311850 - These dynamics make the job of education more interesting when I knock
311851 - a door to sell SDS.  Perhaps Voltaire and Diderot would smile just a
311852 - little, that an idea they struggled for 20 years to implant has indeed
311853 - flourished, and now 200 years later is being extended. Doubtless they
311854 - would nod that some resistance is to be expected from the "money
311855 - changers" and entrenched interests, at the heresy of giving people the
311856 - awesome power of the microcosm to leverage their own knowledge and
311857 - ideas.
311858 -
311859 -     [See resistance to new ideas taking a long time to gestate, ref
311860 -     SDS 13 line 442 and on VLSI technology at Intel, ref SDS 15 line
311861 -     270.]
311863 -  ..
311864 - Glenn Rifkin reports on a recent Harvard Business School study by
311865 - Professor Dorothy Leonard-Barton, Hewlett-Packard manager Edith
311866 - Wilson, and consultant John Doyle:
311867 -
311868 -     "...commercially successful products are not simply the result of
311869 -     market intuition, serendipity, or even traditional market surveys.
311870 -     [successful new products must reflect] what users need even before
311871 -     the users realize it..."
311872 -
311873 -     "Once product designers develop a deep understanding of the
311874 -     current user environment, they can then extrapolate about the way
311875 -     that environment may evolve in the future..." (HBR Mar-Apr 1994 p.
311876 -     10; analysed at ref SDS 6 line 55.)
311878 -  ..
311879 - On the plus side then, SDS seems to be in the path of progress.  As
311880 - people are forced to deal with the emerging "Information Highway" and
311881 - its attendant gridlock, demand will rise for the vision of POIMS tech-
311882 - nology.  Some will resist to the end the prospect of investing their
311883 - own knowledge and ideas, but as word spreads that this investment pays
311884 - off, I expect that some future 18 year old will be greeted warmly when
311885 - knocking on doors to sell SDS, even though he will be unaware of what
311886 - came before.  Hopefully, this will occur sooner than 200 years from
311887 - now.
311888 -
311889 -
311890 -
311891 -
311892 -
311893 -
311894 -
311895 -
3119 -