 I have spent my career in the computer industry starting in 1964 and, therefore, have lived my life in a sea of incredible change. Amidst all this change developed an industry-wide belief: "There are no limits. If we can imagine it, we can do it." So I am inevitably an optimist ,and one committed to continuing change for the common good.
I have worked on very large computer systems, operating systems and airline real time systems. These efforts provided personal insights into how large systems work -- whether technical systems or social systems. I also worked in large organizations, primarily, Sperry Univac which gave me the opportunity of working with many of the top people in the business -- the best way to learn!
While at Sperry, we were asked to pioneer a real time operating system -- which we did. They neglected to tell us, however, that the power structure within the company had no interest in seeing us succeed, so once we demonstrated success, they proceeded to get us closed down. That taught me that change has to benefit everyone, not just be an activity on the fringe that produces winners at the expense of others being losers.
The Chairman of the company then asked to me to lead Sperry Univac into the world of artificial intelligence. Within 2 years, we had 100 projects running throughout the company, following an intrapreneuring model, which focused on making everyone a winner. Then Burroughs showed up with an unwanted merger and stopped it all. That taught me to be aware of forces well outside one's control.
Leaving the merger, a group of us took this excellent experience to the public sector. Within 3 years we had 14 expert systems project with the State of Minnesota and a following of strong people committed to making Minnesota the Knowledge State. The Kennedy School of Public Affairs did a case study on us and found that we had the 14 expert system projects and the rest of the country had 0. Then the Governor lost the 'election he couldn't lose' -- to a candidate that showed up less than 2 weeks before the vote. This strongly reinforced the lesson learned in the paragraph above.
The lessons we learned from these experiences led to knowledge management and a very strong belief that there is a natural symbiosis between many government agencies and this technology.
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