Networks, Complexity, and Relatedness

Networks, Complexity, and Relatedness
Inquiry and learning into social networks, organizational network analysis, and the relationships among people and systems in complex organizations and networks.

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Tuesday, January 15, 2008

If the network could net work

I've written several times about the great collaborative enterprise that was Digital Equipment Corporation. It was the one of the first truly networked (technologically) enterprises, having invented DECnet and other communications network technologies. But as in so many cases, a company's products echo the company's values, and this was also true of Digital. I once wrote an article, "The Camelot of Collaboration," on this very topic.

I continue to work with former colleagues when I have the chance and most of my closest personal friendships were forged in that environment. I received, today, the following email from a Digital "colleague" whom I had never met, who had just been browsing my web site:

Patti, at Digital in 1988 I gave talks in which I asked, "How much work could the network work if the network could net work?" I didn't think anyone was paying attention...
all the best, Harris Sussman

Harris had read my recent article with Nancy Settle-Murphy and decided to check me out. I had never met him at Digital, but I do think that there was something in the water...

(Also, oddly enough, I was looking at my web page traffic statistics at the very moment that I received email from Harris and was curious about who it was in Somerville, MA who was looking at my web site....)

posted by Patti | permalink (click to comment)

Comments:

Hi, Patti,

I never worked for DEC, but I learned computing on the PDP-8 and its siblings. I recall while in high school VMS mail was the first email program I ever used, and, in addition, there was a little program we liked very much called DEC Phone or something like that which fifteen years later morphed into a killer app called Online Chat.

So DEC was way ahead of its time when it came to collaborative tools. It was a shame that its other weaknesses didn't allow it to capitalize on them.

regards, John

# posted by

John Caddell : 8:18 AM

Hi,
We worked with DEC in Israel and thought it was a great corporation but then it got stuck and eventually "died".
Why?

# posted by

Edna : 12:20 PM