Comments on: Musing on organisations and platforms

By: JP

JP — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 15:13:47 +0000

Is that another Ice Age coming?

By: Stephen Smoliar

Stephen Smoliar — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 14:45:24 +0000

Sean, you have reawakened my longing for making cryogenic technology viable at the human scale! Even private jet travel is (needlessly?) time-consuming and leaves you with jet lag if the distance is too great. I would rather have a company like FedEx freeze me, move me like any other (fragile?) package, and thaw me out at my destination at a time consistent with my pre-frozen biological clock!

By: Sean

Sean — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 21:08:25 +0000

Yes but if only you could opt out of all the ‘other stuff’…and just arrive at the airport, get on the plane, land, and leave. It’s the main thing that makes travelling on private jets so compelling (once you get over the glamour of leather and hardwood veneers…)

By: Stephen Smoliar

Stephen Smoliar — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 17:36:19 +0000

JP, I have to admire you for carrying a 1000-page book while traveling! At the very least it means that I am not alone in that particular habit, having taken my copy of THE SOCIOLOGY OF PHILOSOPHIES (1098+xxi pages) on a business trip that covered Tokyo, Singapore, and Sydney! I am not sure how far you want to get into the introductory material before you start commenting, but I am definitely looking forward to your thoughts!

By: JP

JP — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 15:56:07 +0000

Great stuff, Stephen. Something that looks very promising at this stage, something I can get my teeth into while travelling…. I’m always looking for things to read on longhaul flights, and this looks very good. Miller here I come. Thanks

By: Stephen Smoliar

Stephen Smoliar — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 15:08:43 +0000

JP, it occurred to me that my comment to John Dodds about the shift from a physics-based paradigm to a biology-based paradigm is also applicable to how we view the constructs under consideration in this discussion, such as software platforms and markets:

http://confusedofcalcutta.com/2007/07/03/failing-at-the-edges-of-the-network/#comment-156276

As I mentioned in the aforementioned comment, James Grier Miller was exploring the idea of an organization as a “living system” back in 1978. Those with a sense of history should also note that, in his chapter on “The Organization,” Miller cited the pioneering work of Burns and Stalker (published in 1961), in which they proposed the opposition of “mechanistic” and “organic” systems. (Personally, I find the Burns-Stalker conception of “organic” to be naively romantic; but it dates from a time when “normal science” was still trying to reduce biology to physics. The REAL opposition in the Burns-Stalker model, however, is between totalitarian and democratic governance; and we have already had numerous exchanges over models of governance!) The bottom line is that there seem to be lots of signs encouraging us to think more about the biology-based paradigm, whether or not Miller is the best source introduction to that paradigm.

By: N. Venkatraman

N. Venkatraman — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 09:27:34 +0000

Great blog; adds a richer dimension to the discussion of platforms as cooperating, competing and interconnecting. Gives me an idea to map the dimensions of different types of platforms for comparisons so that we can delve into the nuances.

By: Dominic Sayers

Dominic Sayers — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 12:07:37 +0000

Count me in.

By: JP

JP — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 10:04:13 +0000

Dom, are you in town on the 21st? Thinking of doing a Lord’s session. Interested?

By: Dominic Sayers

Dominic Sayers — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 09:01:27 +0000

Re. Paul Smith

I’m sure Ermenegildo Zegna is a “normal” name somewhere.