The problem with Systems of Systems is that they are the rigid stepchildren of their Systems(Hyper)Engineered parents. Replete with design-laden characteristics they belie the core functionality they were built to embody ~ agility. Agility, if truly desired, must be the core design principle. What this means is that as important as determinism, or your Most Important Requirement(s), agility must be. A SySofSys ends up with additional functionality but no leverage to change and add additional additional functionality. A SetsofSys approach takes as a guiding principle that you are creating an IT toolbox which parses functionality into meaningful chunks and provides for quick assemblage. This requires an overlay approach where an organizing principle, the overlay, is created. An overlay governs which capabilities are brought to bear, not the original design. The original design design is of the IT backplane & the core capabilities. An overlay design facility must exist that allows mildly experienced analysts to whip up an new app config quickly. Not during run time mind you; we must allow for solid run time performance & rarely does reconfig occur during the execution of business. It is normally during a pause, or lull...business is still occuring, like a heartbeat, but you are not hot in the race.
next post: SW moves from a design-time activity to a run-time (design)
27 January 2007
What Makes the Millenial Gen Tick
Someone asked recently "What do you technical peers think of Second Life"? The question was aimed at a potential culture war. If the technorati didn't believe in Second Life, or its peers, it wouldn't be worth getting involved - even though the 3Dsocialnet is a very real evolution. My answer is...If you are over 35, and you go into SL, you look around, see, perhaps, interesting things, but are not compelled to act. You may never go back in, or if you do it is unlikely that you will become part of the socail fabric. If you are under 35, this is how it works. You are sitting next to your friend, say close enough to reach out an touch them, but you are text paging him on your cell. This is the equivalent of passing (paper) notes in class, but does not take place in the physical world. Similarly, when you are liesuring, you sit on the couch, across the room or next to your friend - doesn't matter. You are interacting, with your vehicle or avatar, through the TV screen. Since you can remember the internet, IM, and online video games have existed. SL is nothing but a more faithful rendering of the IT disintermediated world in which you live - - why wouldn't you gravitate toward it? Why doesn't Gen X or Gen Boom think this way? Why does IT often seem like an impediment to interacting with other humans?
Gen X. If you think about it, this is how it worked, once you woke up in the morning, got dressed, ate your breakfast, you were out - of the house. Playing with your friends, on the weekends all day long. One game after another, whether it was city stickball, combing the woods, or kickball, you were physically interacting with other humans as your primary means of social interaction. Even today, when I call my friend, we spend about 2 min.s otp, and only to determine where, in the real world we will meet. IT was not the social fabric of our formative years. Can we adjust, yes, but it is just that an adjustment from dead center.
You might be able to gauge someone's level of IT disintermediation by walking the sequence of IT across which they have traversed. Just to use myself as an example:
-1. A Pong console
0. 1982 purchased a Smith Corona Correctable Typewriter for college
1. 1983 Second semester I was acquainted with an Apple IIe for wordprocessing, $325 down the drain on that SC. Very difficult to use, cntrl-x for 20+ key combos
2. 1984 Moved to the computer lab, maybe 20 IBM ATs/XCs with which we did word processing on wordvision. I was hooked at that point
3. 1985 Took Fortan 77 & Pascal on the Burroughs 5500
4. 1984 Took Fortan IV on another MF
5. 1985 Commodore 64
6- IBM PCs
7- Sperry-Univac
8-Prime
9-Mac
10-and so on util today IBM T43
Somewhere in the middle of the span, which is still moving, is my burn in point for the computer concept & my relation to it. Sure, it will change, but it is an anchor nonetheless, from which I perceive the world.
Gen X. If you think about it, this is how it worked, once you woke up in the morning, got dressed, ate your breakfast, you were out - of the house. Playing with your friends, on the weekends all day long. One game after another, whether it was city stickball, combing the woods, or kickball, you were physically interacting with other humans as your primary means of social interaction. Even today, when I call my friend, we spend about 2 min.s otp, and only to determine where, in the real world we will meet. IT was not the social fabric of our formative years. Can we adjust, yes, but it is just that an adjustment from dead center.
You might be able to gauge someone's level of IT disintermediation by walking the sequence of IT across which they have traversed. Just to use myself as an example:
-1. A Pong console
0. 1982 purchased a Smith Corona Correctable Typewriter for college
1. 1983 Second semester I was acquainted with an Apple IIe for wordprocessing, $325 down the drain on that SC. Very difficult to use, cntrl-x for 20+ key combos
2. 1984 Moved to the computer lab, maybe 20 IBM ATs/XCs with which we did word processing on wordvision. I was hooked at that point
3. 1985 Took Fortan 77 & Pascal on the Burroughs 5500
4. 1984 Took Fortan IV on another MF
5. 1985 Commodore 64
6- IBM PCs
7- Sperry-Univac
8-Prime
9-Mac
10-and so on util today IBM T43
Somewhere in the middle of the span, which is still moving, is my burn in point for the computer concept & my relation to it. Sure, it will change, but it is an anchor nonetheless, from which I perceive the world.
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