Been a while since I posted. During 2009 and 2010 (exactly when Gartner predicted back in 2007 - well done, Janelle Hill), major organizations have started using HIM/GOOD as the basis for their strategy, and HumanEdj as a foundation component of next-generation Web platforms, and supporting these efforts has been rather time-consuming.
Having been through this process, I've come to understand that HIM/GOOD have 3 quite separate aspects:
1. Next generation productivity
Business Change Leaders need to introduce what Information Age called "The first fundamental advance in personal productivity since the arrival of the spreadsheet". This is documented in my articles on The Future of Work and Goal-Oriented Organization Design.
2. Next generation software
Software Developers and Technical Business Analysts need better tools to build collaborative business applications. See my presentation to Javapolis ("A Software Framework for Human Interactions") then try the demonstration HumanEdj Web application.
3. Next generation Internet
Technologists are building a massive infrastructure around Web services and federated trust. What is going to glue all this together? We need an operating system for the Web ...
In order to use a computer, you install an operating system to provide and control access by people (user accounts) to things (local and network resources) and services (programs, typically).
It is the same with the next generation of the Internet. We need a more general means to provide and control access by people (trusted identities) to things (objects with an IP address or RFID tag) and services (Web services, typically). Just as with a computer, an operating system is required.
HIM/HumanEdj do exactly this - join up the Internet into something both usable and useful:
HIM - a process modelling approach based on objects of specific types (unlike other process modelling approaches, which are based on sequences of tasks).
HIM helps you understand the Roles, People, Interactions, Activities, Entities and Rules required to achieve objectives, so that you can choose the appropriate resources for a venture, project, programme, issue, bid, or any other piece of work. You can then adjust the resources as necessary while doing the work - a critical enabler for collaborative human activity.
HumanEdj - a process execution system that implements HIM processes as "Plans" that can cross boundaries of any kind (unlike other process execution systems, which are restricted to a specific domain).
People working together in a Plan can belong to different organizations and can use their own instances of HumanEdj with different servers and different user interfaces. You can even communicate with colleagues in a HumanEdj plan using a messaging service such as email. There is no need for a single organization to "own the process", and no restriction to a specific device or platform. This is why email has become so widely used - you can communicate with people without having to use the same email server, or even know what email server they use.
HIM/HumanEdj make it possible to use the Internet efficiently and effectively.
They also make it possible to audit your usage. With the rise of regulatory controls in government/business, and the growing dangers of cyber-crime, it is becoming more and more important to keep a human-readable audit trail of your Internet activity (both for individuals and for organizations).
With HIM/HumanEdj, you get this for free. Every HumanEdj Plan is recorded automatically, both as a template for future work and as an audit trail. You always have a record of what you did, with whom, and the resources you used.
HIM/HumanEdj are the operating system for the next generation of the World Wide Web - they make it work, and they keep it safe.
Maybe I do not fully understand HIM/HumanEDJ, but the suggestion for an operating system for the internet seems completely rediculous. On of the greatest powers (in my humble view) of the internet is that it is a decentralized system.
In fact, I find it easier to compare the internet (or the way in which it is evolving) to the human brain than to a computer. The article talks about the efficiency and effectivity that HIM/HunanEDJ can achieve, I have been trying hard to think of one reason for this, but did not manage to think of any. If we would have an operating system in our brain that would be able to control all the resources I do not think it would be half as effective or efficient for that matter.
Of course with regulatory constraints and the dangers of cyber crime we need solutions to problems, but using a central system for that I think is not the answer. It would be the same as keeping to add to the things that are regulated by government because of crime and other regulations. How effecient and effective would that become?
I think solutions like networks of trust are much more efficient in solving questions like these.
Enough of my rambling, looking forward to hearing other views.
Rob
Hi Rob
Yes, I agree that the strength of the Internet is that it is decentralized. This is exactly my point - we need a *new* kind of "operating system" to help us use, manage, and secure the access the Internet provides to people, things and services.
Perhaps calling such technology an "operating system" confuses the issue, but to me, we need something that fulfils exactly the same function as linux or Windows, only for the Internet itself.
Such an Internet OS must be process-based, since this is the only way we can possibly make sense of the richness available on the Internet. Further, the processes in question are not routine, preset, semi-automated task sequences under the control of a single organization - rather, they are collaborative, adaptive, human-driven "Plans" of which different parties own different parts.
In other words, HIM.
Such an Internet OS must also, like the Internet itself, be fundamentally decentralized, as is (for instance) email. This is your point, of course.
In other words, HumanEdj.
All the best
Keith