Wetware

[John Maloney (IM: jheuristic)]

Hi -

 

These waning years of the first decade of the 21^st century marks the 50^th anniversary of the Information Age. In 1956 the USA Labor Dept noted the number of white collar or information workers had exceeded the number of blue collar workers, ushering in the Information Age. It is also worth noting that Buck Fuller and Marsh McLuhan both concluded that it takes about 50 years for new technologies to be truly transformational.

 

For the decades of the Information Age, humans were most often subordinate to data processing. People were often seen as a messy, error-prone appendage to the all mighty information technology. Slow-moving, faceless automata were a perpetual nuisance to systems designers. Excellence in modern information processing was hygienic, ordered, hermetic, mechanical and process-centric –exactly the opposite the way real people function! The specious mantras of the 90s BPR excess, like “People, Process, Technology,” “Don’t Automate, Obliterate!” and the ever popular ‘PIBKAC’ acronym to describe systems defects, were data processing’s dysfunctional apex.

 

(PIBKAC = Problem Is Between Keyboard and Chair.)

 

Today, we are three decades plus into the internetworking revolution, the Internet Age. December 1974 marked RFC 675 – the first use of the term "Internet" to describe a single global TCP/IP network by the irrepressible Vint Cerf. People, real humans, are assuming their correct role as the principle actors in connected business, productivity and innovation. There is a fundamental social reorientation of work and wealth creation underway.

 

Wetware is rising fast. As a consequence, when conducting value network analysis, the question arises if data, data processing, database or network services can be a role. By in large the answer is no (finally!). There is a more comprehensive treatment here…

 

Role Call (sic):                     http://valuenetworks.com/public/item/211047

Real Humans:                     http://valuenetworks.com/public/item/211048

Role FAQ:                             http://valuenetworks.com/public/item/211049

 

 

In contrast to the Information Age, which imposes structure and process prior to application use, the Internet Age of software, services and technology encourages actual use (gasp!) prior to providing structure. Of course, process, function, structure are important and will never go away. However, they are sharply renewed, improved and amplified with a thorough understand of value creation networks, visualization, analytics and optimization.

 

It’s this overall value networks comprehension of entire business ecosystems and their process inhabitants that is driving breathtaking productivity gains and sustained innovation.

 

2008 is a watershed year in the stunning transformation of stagnant, moribund business processes into fluid, complex networks and comprehensive business ecologies. Using methods of value network analysis, enormous productivity opportunities are uncovered and realized. Network fluency propels continuous innovation and sustained excellence. The post-process enterprise is giving way to thriving value network ecosystems of the future.

 

 

-j