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Conference 7.286::digital

Title:	The Digital way of working

Moderator:	QUARK::LIONELON

Created:	Fri Feb 14 1986
Last Modified:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	5321
Total number of notes:	139771

1047.0. "DIGITAL: a virtual notesfile" by OLDTMR::DMCLURE (Doing the DECwrite thing) Thu Mar 08 1990 19:18

	Digital has come to rely on its many network notesfiles as a means
    of communicating vital information quickly and efficiently across the
    international boundaries of the corporation.  The use of these notesfiles
    is perhaps one thing which sets Digital apart from other corporations
    which lack such internal networking capabilities.  Information flow is
    to a corporation like blood flow is to a living organism; a bottleneck
    in information flow is akin to a cardiac arrest.  Of all the notesfiles
    on our internal network, there is one notesfile which is dedicated to the
    discussion of the way we work at Digital, and that is this, the DIGITAL
    notesfile.  Consider this notesfile a "main artery" of information flow.

	Notesfiles, due to their intra-corporate accessability and geographical
    independence, are also perhaps the closest thing we have to "virtual teams"
    in Digital.  These notesfiles have grown out of the nooks and cranies of our
    respective organizations (sometimes referred to as "empires") and bridge
    the cost-center walls which would otherwise separate us to a large extent.
    Over the years, we have come to take this freedom of information flow quite
    for granted, and we further expect the system to continue to magically work 
    without any official compensation or resources set aside at a corporate
    level to maintain such a goal.

	What results is that occasionally a conference will be relocated to
    a smaller system, or crowded with too many other notesfiles on the same
    system, or some combination of the above, and the system breaks.  The
    problem is that it is really nobody's job to fix such problems.  It is
    either fixed by some noble effort, or left to rot by people who, under
    the current system, are many times forced to place a lower priority on
    such problems.  The fact is that in the current setup, the group which
    hosts a particular notesfile will tend to view it as being either an
    asset to that group (if it somehow contributes to the bottom line of
    that group), or a liability (if it does not).  Few notesfiles which
    service the entire corporation are viewed as an asset to the local cost
    center/group which hosts the notesfile.  This, the DIGITAL notesfile,
    is one such conference.

	Now that the performance of this particular notesfile has reached an
    all-time low, the problem is finally seen to be large enough that the
    system might be considered broken (at least broken enough to satisfy the
    person who might otherwise be tempted to say "don't fix it if it isn't
    broken").  The problem is one of providing a high performance noting
    environment for notesfiles such as this one which benefit no particular
    "empire" within the corporation and which might well be viewed as mere
    liabilities by the local system managers and others who must share their
    own limited system resources and network bandwidth with the likes of
    network noters.

	How can an adequate level of notesfile performance be provided to
    notesfiles such as this which are not really any particular cost center's
    "responsibility"?  How can the virtual teams which notesfiles such as this
    enable even expect to exist without some sort of corporate level support?
    Above all, do we care enough to at least attempt to improve the performance
    of this, the notesfile of notesfiles?
 
				   -davo

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
1047.1		OLDTMR::DMCLURE	Doing the DECwrite thing	`Thu Mar 08 1990 22:05`	19
	...of course, in the info-market environment of note #1024, the digital notesfile could be run by money from the corporate reserve, funded by info-market transaction taxes. A democratically structured info-market government could be formed to, among other things, maintain the health of the network noting environment in the interest of promoting cross-corporate information flow. The digital notesfile could be thought of as the federal government of the info-market, chartered to regulate international information trade, provide security, notesfile accessability, as well as overall network noting reliability. Imagine the performance possible on a system with a purpose! -davo p.s. The sooner the true purpose is established, the sooner we can SELL this idea to customers who might also want to organize such a democratic (DEC-styled) information system in their own corporations. Big bucks! GOD knows we could use them!
1047.2		STAR::MFOLEY	Jammin with Bill and Ted	`Thu Mar 08 1990 23:49`	15
	I don't know about all of you but I for one do not want to see "Corporate" own the DIGITAL notesfile. It's best that DIGITAL keeps its independence. As for HUMAN::, well, what you see is what you get. Peter is a REALLY busy guy who's devoted some resources and alot of time to DIGITAL. It's not his job. Nor should it be. Granted, it's a pain when you want to get into DIGITAL and can't but hey, nothing is perfect. Until Peter can, at his convenience, do something, then we should all just grin and bear it. mike
1047.3		ESCROW::KILGORE	Wild Bill	`Fri Mar 09 1990 09:32`	6
	Or, someone with some extra computes and a sense of the value of this conference will offer it a more accessible home, as is the digital way. (Can you say, "Those who propose, dispose?" I knew you could.)
1047.4		CVG::THOMPSON	My friends call me Alfred	`Fri Mar 09 1990 10:13`	11
	There is a proposal for a sort of Corporate Notes support function available. (I wrote it :-)) One of the things included in it is some computer resources for the permanent or tempory hosting of "important" conferences. It also includes things like consulting on conference startup, moderation issues, and the like. Alfred PS: I'm putting copies of the proposal (for a couple of days) in CVG::CNP.* (PS, LN03, and TXT formats are available). If you want me to mail a copy send mail.
1047.5	Peter's principles are not in question here ;^)	OLDTMR::DMCLURE	Doing the DECwrite thing	`Fri Mar 09 1990 18:31`	46
	re: .2, etc. > As for HUMAN::, well, what you see is what you get. Peter is a > REALLY busy guy who's devoted some resources and alot of time > to DIGITAL. It's not his job. Nor should it be. Granted, it's Yeah, here's the blurb about Peter Conklin in the latest DTW: "Peter Conklin has assumed the newly created position of VIPS technical director. He will be responsible for VIPS technical integration and for support of products and technical direction of other Digital systems and software groups. In addition, he will be the liason for VIPS independent software vendors application support in marketing - and engineering-sponsored programs." I didn't mean to imply that Peter isn't doing a good job or anything (obviously he is doing a good "job"). What I am referring to is the fact that organizationally-virtual notesfiles such as this one are not the responsibility of any particular group, and as such, they tend to get the short end of the computing resource stick. Even notesfiles which are critical to a local organization typically are not always maintained too well, so it isn't surprising that a notesfile such as this is experiencing such poor network performance problems. As to getting my own resources and hosting this conference, I suppose that might temporarily solve the problem (assuming I had such resources to spare - which I don't), but then what happens the next time the file runs into resource problems? It's a symptom of a bigger problem that isn't going away anytime soon without some major changes to the overall "ok, but not in my backyard" attitude towards such virtual notesfiles as well as towards virtual teams in general. It is clear that we still have a long way to go towards converting from the older industrial-era to the new knowledge-era. This change is necessary if we wish to remain in business into the nineties and beyond. Among other things, we need to focus on building an environment which fosters virtual team activity across the corporation. A virtual notesfile (especially this, the DIGITAL notesfile) which is inaccessable during normal working hours is a direct blockade to any sort of virtual team activity. Our corporate problems will only worsen unless this trend can somehow be reversed. -davo p.s. Alfred, that proposal sounds interesting, would you be interested in perhaps sharing a summary of it here?
1047.6	Oooops, thats VAXNOTES_WISHLIST	LESLIE::LESLIE	fault tolerant Unicorn	`Fri Mar 09 1990 20:34`	11
	An answer is to use VMS' TP services to co-ordinate multiple copies of conferences where entries made in one are automatically made in all the copies. (Think of it as a system of replicated, synchronised, databases...) This is standard 2PC transactional database-type technology and needs some work from the Notes folk - I've dropped a short note suggesting this into the CLT::VAXNOTES_WISHES conference. If you perceive this as a possible asnwer, go add your thoughts in that conference. - Andy
1047.7		STAR::MFOLEY	Jammin with Bill and Ted	`Sat Mar 10 1990 22:54`	5
	RE: .6 EXCELLENT idea!! mike
1047.8	Don't start something you can't stop	COUNT0::WELSH	Tom Welsh, UK ITACT CASE Consultant	`Sun Mar 11 1990 05:57`	40
	Too right about not attracting the attention of the Corporate Brontosaur Department. I can distinctly remember a time when we field people in the UK were complaining loudly and bitterly about lack of computer resources. We couldn't support customers, and we didn't even know our own products. Our UK managing director, Geoff Shingles, gave us the good news and the bad news. First he said: "I hear what you are saying. I agree, we need more resources. The Board of Management has voted $N million for new hardware in house". (Good news) Then he said: "Of course, the BOM recognises that this is a major national investment, and so that we will be able to track the ROI and you will be able to get the best value from all this new equipment, we are giving you a CORPORATE INFORMATION SERVICES DEPARTMENT, managed by a Board Member, to run all those new systems for you". (Bad news) Some of us were still thinking it was GOOD News when we logged in to the new systems for the first time and found that we had no privileges, we couldn't install or configure software, in some cases that were stuck in ALL-IN-1, and that if we wanted anything we had to 1. Beg the System Manager (usually a contractor) 2. Fill in some forms 3. Wait a few weeks (months...) 4. Do without anyway. Be careful how you ask for help from the Brontosaur, it might sit on you while it's thinking it over. /Tom
1047.9		FSDB00::AINSLEY	Less than 150 kts. is TOO slow!	`Sun Mar 11 1990 20:47`	5
	re: .8 You got it. I'll take horrible network response to DIS-type support. Bob_who_HAD_to_escape_from_All_in_Prison
1047.10		ELWOOD::PRIBORSKY	All things considered, I'd rather be rafting.	`Wed May 02 1990 10:34`	8
	Is it my imagination, or has this conference become substantially more accessible in the past few weeks? I get fewer link timeouts, fewer "network partner exited", response is crisper (next unseen actually happens in real time instead of over a coffee break), etc. In general, it's back to its old self... I just moved from BXB to NKS, so maybe I'm getting effects of site changes, but I suspect the site change is a second order effect.
1047.11	it's better for me too	DYO780::DYSERT	Barry - Custom Software Development	`Wed May 02 1990 11:27`	4
	It's not your imagination. I've been getting in more easily as well. My compliments to whoever did whatever. BD�
1047.12	See note 2.3	WKRP::LENNIG	Dave (N8JCX), SWS, Cincinnati	`Wed May 02 1990 15:36`	3
	I suspect most people have moved to using the shadow conference. Dave
1047.13	from one who left....	TOLKIN::FARLEY	Have YOU seen Elvis today??	`Wed May 02 1990 15:59`	9
	Re: -2, -1 Thanks to Alfred for the shadow conference. I, for one, no longer use the "live" conference to see what's going on. I use the shadow. Hope my absense has helped you. Kev_OW (Occasional Writer)