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Book for MIT Press
 While at ESD, David is focused on writing a book on the interrelationship between technology, organizations & the evolution of work. The primary hypothesis developed in the book is that technology & organizations (corporate) don’t evolve in a vacuum, but that they co-evolve – that is, they deeply influence the evolution of each other & that by doing so profoundly influence how work is performed in organizations & even what is thought to be work. A secondary hypothesis is that there are common technological & socio-cultural drivers (forcing functions) that effect this co-evolution. These drivers are expressed differently in each area (technology & organizational)
The four drivers currently relevant are:
- Heterogeneity
- Distribution
- Collaboration
- Simplification
Several real-world examples, taken from projects that David has participated, will be used to illustrate & investigate these hypotheses. These examples will tentatively include:
- The adoption & use of Rdb/VMS (Digital Equipment Corporation) for the bill-of-materials systems for Boeing Commercial & Military Airplane Companies (767 Program) (David was the initial Architect (V1 & V2) for this product & later the corporate technology representative for Digital to Boeing)
- The C4 Program at General Motors (David was Technical Director for Digital’s participation in this program)
- Others as relevant
This book is planed to be completed by Spring of 2007 – stay tuned for progress & excerpts. |
