Showing posts with label Specification. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Specification. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Components of Oracle Fusion Applications

Included in the Oracle announcement is...

Oracle Fusion Financials is part of Oracle Fusion Applications, which are completely open, standards-based enterprise applications that can be easily integrated into a service-oriented architecture. Designed as a complete suite of modular applications, Oracle Fusion Applications help you improve performance, lower IT costs, and get better results. Whether you choose one module, a product family, or the entire suite, Oracle enables you to gain the benefits of Oracle Fusion Applications at a pace that matches your business needs.
Ah we’ll take the whole suite. I’m not going to detail the actual modules that will be used in the application, that's for others to decide. My involvement in the Preliminary Specification and subsequent development is nothing. As I have mentioned here before, I have to choose between doing all of the work or none, and I have taken the sane choice. There is no in between. Although I would love to participate in these developments, my role is to secure the financial resources for the development team and Community of Independent Service Providers.

From what I have been able to read about the application modules, they will be extremely flexible and provide the Community of Independent Service Providers with the ability to bring substantial and innovative systems to their producer clients.

Two things that stand out in my quick review, the first being what’s not there. That is any oil and gas specific functionality or process management. These are generic applications that are designed to be developed further for the individual industries use. That is where People, Ideas & Objects, and the Community of Independent Service Providers, will develop and provide the industry with systems based on using the Joint Operating Committee as the key organizational construct of the innovative producer.

The second point is about the overall architecture of the applications. SAP requires you to pick a process that is close to what you want and cater the firm to that process. As was noted in a recent post, the Oracle Fusion Applications provide the opportunity to design the most efficient organizational process and then build the systems to support the optimal solution.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Research Question # 1

In addition to the Preliminary Research Reports hypothesis and conclusion, noting the Joint Operating Committee is the “natural” form of organization, there were a handful of research questions that were answered in that report. The four questions and their updated answers will be posted here over the remaining part of this week.

The first question was simply, “Has the hierarchy’s value expired?

This may seem to be an unfair question, but one that most people will have firm opinions on. Alan Murray, Deputy Managing Editor of the Wall Street Journal wrote an interesting piece on the topic in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal. Within the article he documents many of the issues that organizations face. However, it’s the quantity and quality of the comments to the article that show the scope of the debate on the hierarchy’s future. One can clearly see the two camps forming and the ability to influence each other is at somewhat of a stale mate. Opinions are well formed with differing perspectives of the same facts, note the discussion regarding the development of Boeing’s 787 aircraft. This argument has only begun.

Those who believe that we will continue with the hierarchy number in the minority at this point in time. Those that support the hierarchy would assert, correctly, that their needs to be some form of replacement governance model. You just can’t eliminate the well defined model that governs the oil and gas producers organizations. Although we had not developed an alternative in the Preliminary Research report, we eventually did publish the Military Command & Control Metaphor (MCCM) that provides the replacement governance model for both the Joint Operating Committee and producer firms.

By adopting the well understood military chain of command. Applying it over the producer firms involved in a JOC. Allows teams comprised of members from different firms to operate as required within the specific JOC. This pooling of the available technical resources replicates in many ways the manner in which the NATO countries military resources are able to operate.

The ability to pool technical and scientific resources from several of the producers participating within one JOC is critical. Each firm currently have dedicated technical resources and capabilities built within each producer firm. The luxury of having each firm with mutually exclusive technical resources may be over. With each barrel of oil requiring progressively more earth science and engineering, the demand for these resources may begin to outstrip supply. Additionally the time required to train new earth scientists and engineers does not provide for the potential retirement of the brain trust. These resource constraints can be resolved through the use of the MCCM and pooling of the technical resources of the producer firms.

Therefore, the answer to the question for the oil and gas producer is the hierarchy’s value has expired. It is a model that deals with the firms needs, but ignores the JOC. What the successfully innovative producer needs is a governance model that deals with both the producer firm and the JOC’s that they have an interest in. (Particularly when the operational decision making framework resides with the JOC.) For further reading on this topic please review the MCCM of the Draft Specification.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

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Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Our Revenue Model - Defined

I am pleased to have defined the Revenue Model for People, Ideas & Objects. I have aggregated the material in one knol located here. We now have the justification for producers to support these developments. Definition of the Revenue Model initiates Phase Two of this projects development, the Preliminary Specification. Readers can aggregate all of the posts for Phase Two here.

Producers are encouraged to contact me here in order to begin their participation in these communities.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Getting it Right

The Draft Specification provides a clear vision of how the innovative oil and gas producer would be supported by Information Technology systems. By building IT systems that use the industry standard Joint Operating Committee, innovation is facilitated and enabled. The Draft Specification is however, only the beginning and is by no means the final say. It is the beginning of a process that will discover the right solution with the input of users, producers, the Community of Independent Service Providers and others. Only then can we begin to develop the “right” systems for the industry.

Getting it right will be the difficult part of developing these systems. Community based developments are the only possible way of discovering what is “right”. Producers need to realize these are critical and necessary elements of their future systems success. To assume a vision, or technology driven solution from another vendor would require the same user-driven process. Unlike other ERP vendors, we are not selling a solution to users, we are building the user the “right” tools they need to efficiently do their jobs.

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Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The Division of Labor

The question has been asked, how does the Draft Specification implement a renewed division of labor and specialization? This is a good question, and one who's answer is not fully described in the Draft Specification. I want to be mindful that I don’t interfere in the development of the Preliminary and subsequent specifications. These developments are user driven developments, for me to interfere by commenting on certain aspects would have serious consequences. Users need to know it is they who have the power to make the changes they need. I see this question as being a further clarification of the Draft Specification, and since there are no developments currently being conducted, I do not see any risk in answering this question at this point in time. I will however mention that my perspective may be limited, that the community will be able to add substantially to these points.

To revisit why the division of labor and specialization are important to the oil and gas industry. It simply is the sole source of any economic development. As time passes and the reorganization of industries continues, a further division of labor through greater individual specialization increases the economic output of fixed resources. Therefore to increase the volume of oil and gas production, it is necessary to reorganize the industry based on a more defined division of labor. In this globalized economy, the need to employ software to manage the division of labor is a necessity. The energy industry therefore needs a software development capability, such as that offered here by People, Ideas & Objects, to expand its output.

In our recent review of Professor Langlois we stumbled upon the solution to this difficult question. Recall his words were “gap-filling” in terms of Industrial Districts and Business Groups. The filling of gaps is the process of identifying areas where work needs to be done. The process of going about and filling those gaps is how the division of labor is expanded.

The primary People, Ideas & Objects software modules that enable the identification of gaps is in the Resource Marketplace, Knowledge & Learning, Research & Capabilities modules and the Military Command & Control Metaphor. The Draft Specification is silent on this capability and as I mentioned earlier, this posts content should be considered clarification and possibly an addition to the spec.

Imagine for a moment that the Joint Operating Committee (JOC) has a distribution of the people that are assigned specific tasks to be completed. These can be seen as within the Military Command & Control Metaphor (MCCM) that details the organization and the roles and responsibilities of the people involved. Imagine for a moment that the makeup of the MCCM in the JOC can be compared to a “template” of the optimal distribution or known division of labor. A software driven comparison of the two charts, the MCCM to the template, shows the “gaps” that need to be filled. This same analysis could also be applied in the same fashion for the roles and responsibilities of an individual producer.

How much of this analysis is unique and confidential to the applicable JOC or producer is unknown at this time. It is reasonable to assume that their might also be prototypical industry division of labor templates that are developed within the Community of Independent Service Providers. Where members of the CISP have specialized in increasing organizational output through analysis of the division of labor of JOC’s and producers.

Society is put in peril when world oil production declines. There is evidence that the world's oil production has declined. Therefore the world needs to have the energy industry expand its production. To do so requires that we reorganize to enhance the division of labor and specialization within the industry. As has been proven, this reorganization could achieve far greater oil and gas production. Management of the industry is conflicted in expanding the output of the industry. The less they do, the higher the oil and gas prices and the better they appear to perform. This managerial conflict must be addressed and the performance of the industry unleashed. To do so requires the current management of the industry to fund People, Ideas & Objects and build the systems as defined in the Draft Specification. Please join me here.

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Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Start Date

It might be reasonable to establish a start date in which we could look forward to beginning the next step in our developments. That being the development of the Preliminary Specification. Therefore, you should mark your calendars for January 1, 2011. That is when the development of the Preliminary Specification will begin. People who are interested in becoming members of the Community of Independent Service Providers (CISP), and participate directly in the Preliminary Specification, should begin the development of your proposal as soon as possible. We will begin accepting applications August 31, 2010.  


It would be ideal to have as many people as possible involved in the development of the Preliminary Specification. Therefore, special emphasis should be placed on the marketing aspects of your proposal, as all the other CISP members, users and producers will be able to view the wiki, where they are stored with the specifications deliverables, starting January 31, 2011. Users and producers would then be able to contact CISP members to have their ideas, participation and needs defined through the CISP membership.


Society is put in peril when world oil production declines. There is evidence that the world's oil production has declined. Therefore the world needs to have the energy industry expand its production. To do so requires that we reorganize to enhance the division of labor and specialization within the industry. As has been proven, this reorganization could achieve far greater oil and gas production. Management of the industry is conflicted in expanding the output of the industry. The less they do, the higher the oil and gas prices and the better they appear to perform. This managerial conflict must be addressed and the performance of the industry unleashed. To do so requires the current management of the industry to fund People, Ideas & Objects and build the systems as defined in the Draft Specification. Please join me here.

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Thursday, May 06, 2010

Langlois on Chandler Part II

Part II of our review of Professor Richard Langlois' paper "Chandler in a Larger Frame: Markets, Transaction Costs, and Organizational Form in History". Today's post looks at capabilities development from an evolutionary point of view. Langlois notes his and Chandler's preference is to focus on evolution in the development of the firm and markets capabilities. One of the major problems with moving to use the People, Ideas & Objects Draft Specification is the radical or revolutionary nature of the necessary changes. The way in which most firms are operated today is substantially different then what is contemplated in the Draft Specification. In this post I argue these changes are evolutionary and bring the oil and gas producer closer to its more natural form of organization, the Joint Operating Committee (JOC).

During the 1960's systems capabilities were limited and their applications were quite crude. Organizational developments were therefore constrained by the limitations in Information Technologies. The focus of systems development was the firm itself, and that focus was driven primarily by the compliance and governance requirements of firms (Accounting, Tax, Royalty, SEC etc). The Joint Operating Committee was secondary to the demands of the compliance and governance frameworks of the firm. This systems thinking grew over a period of time in which it included several generations of people. Through this process the administration of oil and gas became more oriented to the compliance and governance frameworks and conversely more withdrawn from the five frameworks of the JOC.

It is my opinion that the Draft Specification is not revolutionary in it's move to the JOC, but evolutionary. Particularly from the point of view that we are moving towards the common-sense form of organization. Leaving this systems thinking perception behind is what is necessary for the innovative producer to attain the speed of operations necessary to compete in the oil and gas industry. Langlois notes;
Drawing on many of these ideas, Paul L. Robertson and I have proposed an evolutionary theory of what we call business institutions, that is, of markets, hierarchies, and the many hybrid forms that live between and around markets and hierarchies. What drives the theory are the costs faced by various business institutions of acquiring economic capabilities suitable to the profit opportunities they face. p. 360
With the escalating scientific demands contained within each barrel of oil, the key constraint is the number of earth scientists and engineers. Can we increase the volume of these key individuals at will? Of course not, and with the potential retirement of the senior levels, this issue will only become more acute as time passes. The Draft Specification deals with the limited engineering and earth science resources by addressing the bureaucracies need to develop 100% of their capabilities in-house. These silo's of capabilities built within each firm are designed to deal with every possible contingency. The building of individual silo's within each firm introduces a redundancy that is unaffordable in the current and future oil and gas industry.

There is also the issue of the means of organization of these resources. The hierarchy provides for an advanced division of labor, however, what is needed to expand the economic output of the oil and gas industry is a more detailed division of labor. The Draft Specification deals with the earth science and engineering demands by using the Information Technologies to pool the technical resources of each producer represented in the JOC. These technical resources are further enhanced by enabling a greater role of the service industries to provide a dynamic capability through the marketplaces that support the innovative oil and gas producers. These are reflected in the Draft Specification's  Military Command & Control Metaphor, Resource Marketplace, Knowledge & Learning and Research & Capabilities modules.

Please note as well, the Draft Specification places Intellectual Property (IP) development for the industry in the hands of those with incentives to earn their benefits. The producer firm's competitive advantage is derived from their asset base and application of the firm and markets scientific capabilities to those assets. Development of the IP necessary for multi-lateral fracing and other innovations is best left to the market. A market where those that have the ideas will benefit from their development. Simply the scientific issues that face the industry will not be resolved by a bureaucracy. The difficult and timely effort necessary to develop an idea will only be undertaken by those that deem some benefit in doing so. The Draft Specification therefore respects the IP rights of individuals and corporations that are able to expand the scientific capabilities of the oil and gas producer.

Professor Langlois notes three factors are important. Application of this framework to the methods used in the Draft Specification will provide an understanding of the choices that were made.
1. The pattern of existing capabilities in firms and market. Are existing capabilities distributed widely among many distinct organizations, or are they contained importantly within the boundaries of large firms? p. 360
2. The nature of the economic change called for. When technological developments or changes in relative prices generate a profit opportunity, does seizing that opportunity require a systemic reorganization of capabilities (including the learning of new capabilities), or can change proceed in autonomous fashion along the lines of an existing division of labor? p. 360
3. The extent of the market and the level of development of market supporting institutions. To what extent can the needed capabilities be tapped through existing arrangements, and to what extent must they be created from scratch? To what extent are there relevant standards and other market-supporting institutions? p. 360
Our appeal should be based on these eight "Focused on" priorities and values of how better the oil and gas industry and its operations could be handled. They may not initially be the right way to go, but we are committed to working with the various communities to discover and ensure the right ones are. If your an enlightened producer, an oil and gas director, investor or shareholder, who would be interested in funding these software developments and communities, please follow our Funding Policies & Procedures, and our Hardware Policies & Procedures. If your a government that collects royalties from oil and gas producers, and are concerned about the accuracy of your royalty income, please review our Royalty Policies & Procedures and email me. And if your a potential user of this software, and possibly as a member of the Community of Independent Service Providers, please join us here.

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Thursday, April 15, 2010

Oracle Stack - Oracle Fusion Applications

Continuing on with our review of the Oracle product offerings and defining which of their applications and architectures are to be included in the application modules of People, Ideas & Objects. In a previous post, we adopted wholesale the Oracle Database and Middleware product offerings. In another post we noted the Application Integration Architecture and how the Community of Independent Service Providers could use these tools to aid in the accounting integration of a producers system. All of the discussion of the Oracle products and architectures is being aggregated under the Oracle-Stack Label on this blog. Once our review is complete we will be updating the Draft Specification.

Oracle Fusion Applications are a difficult product to commit too since they don't exist as of yet. However, what we can determine from Oracle is that the project is providing the kind of application infrastructure that is necessary to build the Draft Specification and deliver it through the cloud computing paradigm. Oracle Fusion Applications and Middleware are using the best parts of the Agile / Scrum development methodology, and therefore consistent with our approach to development. There are no cultural differences between the Oracle methods and those that were proposed in People, Ideas & Objects developments.

Critical to the success of the Oracle Fusion Applications is their use and application of the Oracle Middleware stack. This is the way that applications are built in most architectures and is consistent with what we were proposing to do before we joined Oracle as a customer. Java Enterprise servers provide the necessary infrastructure and control of information that makes not using a Java Enterprise server, redundant. Recreating the wheel each time a project is started is counter to the Java way.

It is clear in many of the videos and documents that I viewed that the web is the centre of the user experience. All of the application demonstrations and presentations reflected this web centered delivery. Using standard web browsers, Oracle Fusion Middleware and Applications gains this ease of use and universality of access. Making the user experience robust in the cloud computing paradigm. We will need to determine if the web platform provides the level of access control and security necessary to meet our potential producers needs. It is reasonable to assume that if Oracle is using the browser this extensively, they've cracked the security problems and are satisfied with the control. The user having browser access would be a performance and ease-of-use improvement over using Java Web Start, which is the current method defined in the Draft Specification.

One of the key attributes of becoming an Oracle customer is the access to the understanding and knowledge they have in the ERP application market-space. Oracle is the largest enterprise software company. They have experience in developing, deploying and supporting their ERP application offerings. This experience is based on a history of PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards, Siebel , BEA and Oracle Financials. Our costs may be substantially higher by using Oracle, but what we gain in doing so brings our product offering to a higher level of quality. According to videos that I viewed on YouTube Oracle has over 2,500 application developers just in the Fusion Applications development. As a result, we inherit the efforts of these people through the Java re-use attributes.

To view one of the best documents on Oracle Fusion Applications go here. Where on page five the following is noted.

The goal of Oracle Fusion Applications is to help customers transform their business into a next generation organization. This next-generation organization will have more adaptable business processes, more productive people, and more manageable systems. Next generation adaptability will come from a native service oriented architecture that allows for easier integration with other applications and configurable business processes. Embedded business intelligence, a rich, pervasive, and personalized user experience, and Enterprise 2.0 business processes will power next generation productivity. Finally centralized security, audit, and controls, and the ability to deploy applications on premise, as a service, or through business process outsourcing will deliver next generation manageability.
This quotation shows that Oracle and People, Ideas & Objects are wholly consistent in terms of our approach to defining and supporting the software for the innovative oil and gas producer. Therefore, the commitment to these products and architectures is made quite easily.

Next on this topic we'll review the Oracle Consulting offerings. Our appeal should be based on these eight "Focused on" priorities and values of how better the oil and gas industry and its operations could be handled. They may not initially be the right way to go, but we are committed to working with the various communities to discover and ensure the right ones are. If your an enlightened producer, an oil and gas director, investor or shareholder, who would be interested in funding these software developments and communities, please follow our Funding Policies & Procedures, and our Hardware Policies & Procedures. If your a government that collects royalties from oil and gas producers, and are concerned about the accuracy of your royalty income, please review our Royalty Policies & Procedures and email me. And if your a potential user of this software, and possibly as a member of the Community of Independent Service Providers, please join us here.

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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Oracle - Stack Application Integration Architecture

We continue along with our review of Oracle Corporation product offerings in order to revise the Draft Specification. It is clear that the addition of Oracle products brings a level of capability to People, Ideas & Objects that is impressive. This is our second post on this topic, with our review being aggregated under the Oracle-Stack label on this blog. When we are complete, in terms of defining the Oracle Products that will be part of People, Ideas & Objects offerings, I will update the Draft Specification to include the changes. So far this has been a fairly easy process with the wholesale adoption of the Database and Middleware stacks of Oracle products. Today we move into the Application section of their product offerings. Specifically we look at their Application Integration Architecture (AIA).

One of the areas that Oracle has been busy with in the past decade is in the area of acquisitions. Might be the understatement of this century. They now own a substantial portion of the ERP and CRM business environments and are in possession of many of the top applications. PeopleSoft, BEA, Siebel, J.D. Edwards and Sun are just a few of the many acquisitions that they have made. These acquisitions have come with a substantial number of customers, particularly when you consider they also owned their own ERP systems in Oracle Financials. To get ahead of the competition they realized they needed to build a new generation of applications for their customers. Oracle Fusion Applications is that architecture and Oracle Application Integration Architecture is how those customers on PeopleSoft, Oracle Financials, Siebel, J.D. Edwards, SAP and others are going to move to Oracle Fusion Applications.

From People, Ideas & Objects point of view, we see that there are a number of systems that are used in the oil and gas marketplace. We are also like Oracle in that we are developers of custom applications based on the vision of the Draft Specification and the reality of Oracle Fusion Applications. The more I read about the Oracle product stack, the more I feel this is the correct direction to move. Oracle Fusion Applications appear to be bringing to market a different concept of what ERP systems are comprised of. Application names that end in "Hub" and "Engine" are exactly what we need to build Partnership Accounting, Accounting Voucher and other modules.

As has been indicated in many previous posts. The Community of Independent Service Providers are a key element of how the user community and People, Ideas & Objects developers interact. One of the key areas that we will be looking to the CISP for is the accounting systems integration. By using Oracle Application Integration Architecture tools they could move a producer from their current system, whether that is SAP, Oracle Financials, Qbyte or others to People, Ideas & Objects much quicker, with less cost and difficulty by predefining and pre-programming much of the interfaces across the disparate systems. With Oracle's stated objective of eventually moving all of their customers to Oracle Fusion Applications, making the integration from those applications as seamless as possible, is only common sense. What is different this time is the scale at which Oracle has approached the transition and that is reflected in the Application Integration Architecture offering. People, Ideas & Objects has access to these tools and a community of service providers, the CISP, to make these transitions as painless as possible.

Two resources are the most appropriate to review to get a handle on this unique and exciting tool set. Listen to a two part interview of Oracle Vice President Jose Lazarus, here and here, talking on AIA and the "Evolutionary Path to Fusion" white-paper. Some of the key thoughts behind the product are noted below.

  • Supports transactions across multiple systems.
  • Delivers integrated business process.
  • Pre-built integration.
  • Part of Fusion Applications.

Jose Lazuras talks about the Oracle product strategy for AIA. Their core strategy is to simply limit costs and risks of integrating multiple applications. In February of 2008 they expanded on this product strategy by introducing their "Foundation Pack" which is a programming module for integration purposes. If I didn't already have a job at People, Ideas & Objects I would certainly look into joining as a member of the CISP working on producer integrations. 

Lastly one can define what a product is by also defining what it is not. With our review of Oracle products it is determined that the People, Ideas & Objects application will be based on Oracle Fusion Applications (more on this in the next post on the Oracle-Stack) and therefore, will not be built on the following Oracle products.

  • Oracle E-Business Suite
  • PeopleSoft Enterprise
  • Siebel
  • J.D. Edwards Enterprise One
  • J.D. Edwards World
  • Agile
  • AutoVue

Our appeal should be based on these eight "Focused on" priorities and values of how better the oil and gas industry and its operations could be handled. They may not initially be the right way to go, but we are committed to working with the various communities to discover and ensure the right ones are. If your an enlightened producer, an oil and gas director, investor or shareholder, who would be interested in funding these software developments and communities, please follow our Funding Policies & Procedures, and our Hardware Policies & Procedures. If your a government that collects royalties from oil and gas producers, and are concerned about the accuracy of your royalty income, please review our Royalty Policies & Procedures and email me. And if your a potential user of this software, and possibly as a member of the Community of Independent Service Providers, please join us here.

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Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Oracle Stack - Database and Middleware

With this post I will start to detail the various Oracle components that we will use in developing and delivering People, Ideas & Objects Draft and other Specifications. These posts will be aggregated under the "Oracle-Stack" label for future reference. I will also refresh the Draft Specification with the greater detail and information provided in these posts. Today, I want to do the easy lifting and talk about the Oracle Database and Middleware products.

What can't be said about the Oracle Database. It is remarkable that the value of Oracle is the vision that Larry Ellison continues to see for this product. Ellison is to databases what Steve Jobs is to the consumer. As it stands, the Oracle Database feature set is light years ahead of the IBM DB2 product offering. I don't know what IBM has been up to, although it doesn't appear to be too much based on the changes to DB2.

One of the key attributes of People, Ideas & Objects use of the Oracle Database is that the database rules. These object-relational mapping strategies frighten me. I started developing to the Oracle Database in 1993 and was quickly indoctrinated to relational theory. Nothing in the object-relational world provides a stronger argument then Oracle's implementation of relational theory.

That being stated we have to live in the real world, and accept that our world includes Java. So the architecture will follow along these lines. The database rules. That is to say all data operations that create, update or delete data are done by the database, based on database related logic. Application logic will be handled by Java and it will have the object-relational mapping between it and the database provided by Oracle's Toplink. This will provide the database integrity that will be necessary for the application to operate as it is required. So in summary, the application model, when creating, updating or deleting data will defer to the relational database for its operations.

Review of "Oracle's Database" layer of applications and frameworks introduces us to clustering, warehousing, security, compression, caching, search and other services. These will all be deployed as we are working within the cloud computing paradigm. The Security & Access Control module of the People, Ideas & Objects application will incorporate 100% of the Oracle Security, Oracle Identity, access control and our Military Command & Control Metaphor. This concludes the discussion on the Database layer and now we move to the middleware.

The same discussion noted above about the database ruling the applications logic when it comes to insert, update or delete operations applies in the middleware layer of the Oracle product offerings. What's important to note is that Oracle had me at "Fusion". This is an unbelievable grouping of applications that are designed to enable the cloud computing paradigm. Controlling all the elements of the technology stack, from silicon, Java, Solaris etc, which makes the paradigm a reality. My favorite product in this layer is the Oracle Coherence offering.

Of note we will also be moving from the GlassFish application server to Oracle's offering. This provides us with a substantial boost in terms of the performance of the servers. GlassFish remains the reference implementation, but Oracle has such strength in this area, that they have placed GlassFish one tier down from their Oracle WebLogic Server Enterprise Edition product. To repeat we will be using Oracle WebLogic Server Enterprise Edition.

This covers off the two bottom layers of the Oracle product offering. As you can see it was the easy lifting due to the fact that we have adopted both layers wholesale. Addition of the Military Command & Control Metaphor will be no easier, nor more difficult as a result of these changes.

Next up will be discussion of the Applications layer of Oracle products. The next post will be on the Application Integration Architecture, specifically. Much of the thinking that went into the development of the Draft Specification has similarly been adopted by Oracle. That is to say their design and ours really resonate.

One thing that we haven't discussed is the cost associated to moving to these products. My attitude is who cares. With the oil and gas industry being a primary industry generating $3.8 trillion per year, the associated costs of Oracle licenses will be far below one one-hundredth of 1%. ($381 million) or there about's.

If your an enlightened producer, an oil and gas director, investor or shareholder, who would be interested in funding these software developments and communities, please follow our Funding Policies & Procedures, and our Hardware Policies & Procedures. If your a government that collects royalties from oil and gas producers, and are concerned about the accuracy of your royalty income, please review our Royalty Policies & Procedures and email me. And if your a potential user of this software, and possibly as a member of the Community of Independent Service Providers, please join us here.

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Saturday, March 27, 2010

Comments from the Oil & Gas Journal

Some interesting comments are being made in an article from the Oil & Gas Journal. Comments that reflect that our revised approach may find an audience. Entitled "Shale gas plays seen reshaping research, relationships", the article notes elements in play in the oil and gas industry that are 100% consistent with the assumptions that went into the development of the Draft Specification.

Focusing on the Joint Operating Committee as the key organizational construct of the innovative oil and gas producer provides many benefits. One is the ability to enhance the quality and speed of the decision making processes around the property the JOC represents. Each producer has the same motivation with respect to the property. Financial interests drive consensus. Suppliers are critical elements of the quality of operations. The Resource Marketplace Module recognizes these facts and builds a collaborative, transaction-oriented marketplace environment to enable the development of the earth science and engineering innovations. The Resource Marketplace Module is integrated with the Accounting Voucher Module to design the transactions between the producers of the Joint Operating Committee and the suppliers they choose. Transaction design is the future producers greatest source of value-add.

Comments from the Oil & Gas Journal:

Shale gas, said Jonathan Lewis, senior vice-president of Halliburton’s drilling and evaluation division, is “fundamentally changing the energy landscape in North America and is doing so with unprecedented speed.”
Other likely areas of technical and scientific progress he cited for shale development are basin-scale modeling, formation evaluation, drilling optimization, underbalanced drilling, borehole steering, multilateral completions, and collection of data in real time.
Lewis also predicted a “new generation” of numerical simulation techniques and said that, beyond science and technology, shale plays are encouraging new “operations optimization and collaboration” as operators seek ways to “drive waste and idle time out of the process.”
The efforts have increased collaboration between operators and service companies, Lewis said. They also have increased the use of packaged services, such as drilling and completion, and of incentives in contracts.
All of which are comments that show the direction of the industry and the Draft Specification resonate.

There is also the market that People, Ideas & Objects have identified for use of this software. The Joint Operating Committee is globally systemic. Start-ups, National Oil Companies (NOC's), International Oil Companies (IOC's) and Independents have all been targeted for use of this software. The Oil & Gas Journal has something to say regarding this changing dynamic as well.
G. Allen Brooks, managing director of the investment banking firm Parks Paton Hoepfl & Brown, said the restructuring results from expansion of activity by national oil companies, the “struggle” by international oil companies “to find a new business model,” the movement of gas into its role as a transition fuel, and politics and taxation.
Gone are the days where the NOC's were operating all elements of the industry themselves. They too need the oil and gas producer and service provider to enhance and optimize the resources of their countries. It's a new day where a new approach appeals to all countries.

If the IOC's are struggling to find a new business model, may I suggest they review the Draft Specification. This specification has the cumulative efforts of five years of research into using the industry standard Joint Operating Committee as the key organizational construct of the innovative oil and gas producer. In an industry where the scientific and engineering demands in each barrel of oil produced, are escalating, People, Ideas & Objects provides the technical infrastructure and software development capability to mirror the energy producers innovations. Most importantly, this five years of research is reflected in the Draft Specification. And therefore, producers can re-capture this five year period by subscribing to People, Ideas & Objects.

March 31, 2010 is the deadline for raising our 2010 operating budget. After which a variety of consequences, such as financial penalties and a loss of one years time will occur. Our appeal should be based on the 30 compelling reasons of how better the oil and gas industry and its operations could be handled. They may not be the right way to go, but we are committed to working with the various communities to discover and ensure the right ones are.

If your an enlightened producer, an oil and gas director, investor or shareholder, who would be interested in funding these software developments and communities, please follow our Funding Policies & Procedures, and our Hardware Policies & Procedures. If your a government that collects royalties from oil and gas producers, and are concerned about the accuracy of your royalty income, please review our Royalty Policies & Procedures and email me. And if your a potential user of this software, and possibly as a member of the Community of Independent Service Providers, please join us here.

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Friday, March 19, 2010

Perez The New Technologies Part III

Our review to date of this critical 1986 paper "The New Technologies: An Integrated View" by Professor Carlota Perez has already produced two spectacular posts. The first post rooted in academia the thought that using the Joint Operating Committee is the common-sense approach. The second post detailed the matter-of-fact way that using the JOC will influence the productive and value generating capability of the industry.

This post provides support for the type of oil and gas operation and software development capabilities that will be successful in the near future. Moving away from the command and control nature of the bureaucracy to a dynamic industry is difficult to see at this point. Professor Perez helps us to detail the nature of this change.

IV. An exploration of the features of the new paradigm

From the previous discussion it should be clear that the effort we propose to undertake is not centered upon the electronics industry itself but in the trends generated in the whole of the economy by its development and the diffusion of its products. p. 18
We begin by examining the elements most closely related to the shift in the dynamics of relative costs; the impact this shift is likely to have on innovation trajectories and upon the mix of new products. Then, the new best practice production model, based on the characteristics of the new equipment, is analyzed. Finally, we try to identify the direction of change in the forms of organization and management of the firm. p. 18

NEW PARAMETERS FOR INNOVATION TRAJECTORIES

The importance of the oil and gas industry to society is accurately reflected in the calculation of 270 billion man days per day. Never before have we been so dependent on an industry for our very survival. The way that the industry proceeds from here needs to change. The bureaucracies are too slow and cumbersome to operate in this new dynamic world. The ability to explore and produce adequate volumes of energy is slipping behind the market's demand. This situation will continue of course, and the Information Technologies will enable the changes necessary for the industry to keep up to the demand for energy.
The central feature of the new paradigm is the trend towards increasing the information content of products, as opposed to energy or materials content. This is a direct consequence of the radical and continuing change in the relative cost structure towards ever cheaper information handling and transmission. For this phenomenon to introduce a bias in innovation, it is not necessary to assume that the costs of energy and materials will tend to increase constantly in absolute terms. It is enough to suppose that the diminishing cost and the growing potential of microelectronics will tend to widen the gap into the future. With this prospect, one can extrapolate forward the already observed new trends in product and process design. p. 18
And here Professor Perez eloquently details the characteristics inherent in People, Ideas & Objects and the Draft Specification.
Small is more beautiful and more profitable than big; versatile, compatible, adaptable, are better than rigid. A programmable product is better than a dedicated one. A product capable of modular growth is superior to one with defined and static scale and potential. A product with greater speed of operation and response is preferable to a slower one. Any product capable of joining a network or becoming the center or an element of a system is better than an isolated one. Distributed “intelligence” is more efficient than centralized control. p. 19
and
These vast opportunities for introducing innovations in an ever-growing spectrum of applications and in an ever wider range of activities, multiplied by the number of successive generations of each equipment, indicate that the evolutionary trajectories of these new technology systems will stretch a very long way into the future. These series of innovations widen even further the field of action for the software industry. p. 20
That is the role of People, Ideas & Objects. To organize the communities of people who work within the oil and gas industry.
These new technology systems are the most likely to drive global growth for the decades ahead. Thus it is reasonable to expect that the most powerful and largest firms will tend to locate and concentrate in the most dynamic core areas of these systems. p. 21
Participation by users in these core areas is available. These are user-based developments that support the communities involved in oil and gas. The core areas of these systems are forming and organizing around the ideas of using the Joint Operating Committee. 
Moreover, using similar equipment, small and medium plants can achieve an analogous flexibility and high efficiency. Thus, high levels of productivity are no longer so dependent on economies of scale. p. 23
This last quotation reflects the common-sense nature of using the Joint Operating Committee. It doesn't matter what size the producer that owns an interest in a property is. It could be Exxon or a local start-up. Financial ownership drives consensus at the participant level. The only area of concern or focus is the property that is associated with the JOC, and the strategy that each producer selects. Having a dynamic capability, as reflected in the Resource Marketplace module of the Draft Specification gives an equality to all the producers. This is also one of the documented benefits of using People, Ideas & Objects, the Financial Resource Marketplace permits ownership of any size of producer firm to participate in the JOC and not hinder the development of the property due to a lack of financial scale.

C. Technological dynamism: Design as an integral part of production

Over the past few hundred years. Man has used energy to leverage labor 45 fold. I believe it was around 1870 that labor from machines produced more then man. At what point in terms of leveraging our intellectual capabilities are we at today? What is holding us back from experiencing these types of benefits? Are the infrastructure to do so in place today? Or are we waiting for the bureaucracy to fund People, Ideas & Objects?
The coupling of computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD—CAM), together with expected increases in the productivity of software development, tend to diminish the relative cost of innovation and shorten the learning curves. This turns engineering design into a capital intensive activity and makes it an integral part of the production process with a crucial role in determining productivity and competitiveness. p. 24
D. Supply adapted to the shape of demand

In this next section Professor Perez identifies the nature of the bureaucracies view of the energy market. One in which demand adapted to the supply of oil and gas. Now the dynamic requires a different point of view. China, India and other developing nations have as much right, and possibly greater financial flexibility, to consume energy as the developed nations. Energy prices have responded, and they will continue to respond to this new reality.
Under the mass production paradigm, in which productivity and profitability depended on the growth of massive markets for identical products, pressure towards uniformity in consumption patterns was a condition of economic growth. In essence it was necessary for demand to adapt to the shape of supply. The new model tends to revert this relationship. pp. 25 - 26
This should be welcome news to the oil and gas producer! Greater demand and higher prices. The problem is that higher prices have helped the management of oil and gas keep maintain the status quo. Higher profits from higher prices have enabled the management to not only keep control longer then they should have, they have enabled the management to endow themselves with compensation schemes that make bankers look timid.
Maximum plant efficiency begins to be defined by its capacity to address the specificity of the particular market environment in which it operates. Thus, systems in use could tend to be infinitely diverse, covering even the narrowest niches and the furthest corners of the market and growing modularly at the rhythm of demand. p. 26
We need to act. The move towards the future that Professor Perez describes is to build the software. We are far too advanced a society just to leave it up to the market or some government agency. We need to act.
The vehicles for achieving all this diversity are the new branches of software and systems engineering. Their task could be understood as the last phase of production of the new capital goods (where their final purpose is defined). Their activities play a double role in the expansion of production under the new paradigm. On the one hand, they allow the multiplication of investment opportunities downstream by designing the systems to cover an infinite variety of new product and service markets. On the other hand, they foster the growth of the upstream demand for equipment, components, telecommunications services and other products of the motive branches. p. 26
March 31, 2010 is the deadline for raising our 2010 operating budget. After which a variety of consequences, such as financial penalties and a loss of one years time will occur. Our appeal should be based on the 30 compelling reasons of how better the oil and gas industry and its operations could be handled. They may not be the right way to go, but we are committed to working with the various communities to discover and ensure the right ones are.

If your an enlightened producer, an oil and gas director, investor or shareholder, who would be interested in funding these software developments and communities, please follow our Funding Policies & Procedures, and our Hardware Policies & Procedures. If your a government that collects royalties from oil and gas producers, and are concerned about the accuracy of your royalty income, please review our Royalty Policies & Procedures and email me. And if your a potential user of this software, and possibly as a member of the Community of Independent Service Providers, please join us here.

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Tuesday, March 09, 2010

One Platform to Innovate From

People, Ideas & Objects is about bringing a software development capability to the oil and gas industry. This is assumed as necessary to have innovation in the earth sciences and engineering disciplines drive the industry forward. A rapidly changing and innovating industry requires that the ERP software that it uses; supports and identify the industry standard Joint Operating Committee. People, Ideas & Objects brings this capability about through the development of the software as defined in the Draft Specification.

I mentioned a few day's ago the 20 developer teams we foresee in developing this application. One of these teams will be for the mobile platforms that are becoming common in the market. Whether these are phones or larger devices these products will bring about many changes to the prepared organization. I have also documented on this blog before that these types of devices threaten the unprepared organization in ways that I don't think are fully appreciated.

One of the ways in which the unprepared organization is challenged by these devices is the access to the new and innovative type of applications. Having to use the previous generations of technologies has a negative impact on the quality of work being conducted in the industry. If an engineer sees that the industry is unable to use these new technologies, they may decide to move to more progressive industries. People want to get the job done, not haggle with old technologies.

Another way is for the technology to enter the back door of the organization. This I feel is the worst possible situation. People using new technologies that the organization has no understanding of. There are over 140 thousand applications on the iPhone and soon to launch iPad. How many of these are involved in the operation of the oil and gas industry. Thankfully the oil and gas industry does not establish a large enough market for a developer to focus on them specifically, however, there are applications that are being used without the organizations knowledge. How many are accessing data and information that is of value to the firm or its competitors? It is reasonable to assume that there is data and information being prepared on these devices that the firms know nothing of.

These new devices are of substantial value in the hands of the oil and gas workers. Working remotely, or at the office, the ability to connect and interact with other people, data, applications (ERP & Mobile Apps) provides substantial value. The People, Ideas & Objects Mobile Teams Product Owner is able to provide these types of applications to the People, Ideas & Objects users and Community of Independent Service Providers. However, they are also able to ensure that the Security & Access Control, Data Model and Military Command & Control Metaphor are incorporated into the Mobile Applications. The ability to incorporate these application attributes are only possible to the People, Ideas & Objects Mobile Application team. The have the access to the other application modules of the Draft Specification, are innovation focused and most important of all are a critical member of the software development capability that People, Ideas & Objects provides the oil and gas industry.

It is disappointing to the community at large that these types of opportunities may fall another year into the distance. The discussion yesterday about the high probability of a funding failure hurts the industry in terms of dealing proactively with these technologies. The ability to ignore these technologies doesn't exist anymore. You either incorporate them into your business constructively, or let them enter the organization like a virus. It's the choice of the firm and unfortunately, if the funding failure occurs, this will be the way that the oil and gas industry deals with the new technologies. Not what the community wants to do.

With a purpose driven software development capability, what possibilities are there? This new iPad will have video chat enabled. Would it be constructive to have all the members of the Joint Operating Committee to meet virtually, face-to-face, with the other members? And could this be on an ad-hoc just-in-time basis, anywhere the participants are and anytime of the day? Would this provide value to the member firms? Of course it would. What would make the discussion more valuable would be the ability to have these discussion in a secure manner, that were respectful of the Compliance & Governance of the member firms, recognized the Military Command & Control Metaphor that dictates the JOC's pecking order, recorded any decisions made, authorized and implemented any plan of action, and lastly have access to the proprietary information and data of the property associated with the JOC.

One quick additional point about the use of a device like the iPad. Each producer firm that is a participant in the JOC will have their own unique strategy for the property. They also have their own costs and revenues. These are almost universally mutually exclusive to the strategies, costs and revenues of the other member firms. Would it be of value to have these other data elements show up to the participant for their own purposes?

All of the points mentioned are possible with the development of the Draft Specification and having the software development capability inherent in the People, Ideas & Objects offering. Approaching this type of opportunity in a constructive manner is the appropriate way to move. I would hate to lose another years time because the industry did not have the foresight to fund these types of developments. Its one thing for a separate organization like People, Ideas & Objects provides this type of functionality. Imagine if it was Exxon that owned and operated a software development capability and functionality like the Draft Specification. Would anyone else ever use it knowing it was owned and operated by one producer? What the industry needs is one platform to innovate from.

March 31, 2010 is the deadline for raising our 2010 operating budget. After which a variety of consequences, such as financial penalties and a loss of one years time will occur. Our appeal should be based on the 21 compelling reasons of how better the oil and gas industry and its operations could be handled. They may not be the right way to go, but we are committed to working with the various communities to discover and ensure the right ones are.

If your an enlightened producer, an oil and gas director, investor or shareholder, who would be interested in funding these software developments and communities, please follow our Funding Policies & Procedures, and our Hardware Policies & Procedures. If your a government that collects royalties from oil and gas producers, and are concerned about the accuracy of your royalty income, please review our Royalty Policies & Procedures and email me. And if your a potential user of this software, and possibly as a member of the Community of Independent Service Providers, please join us here.

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Saturday, February 13, 2010

Transaction Cost Economics and 24

A light posting on a serious topic. The blog Stumbling and Mumbling has an analysis of Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) and the television show "24". The analysis shows why TCE is so valuable in determining, among other things, the barriers between firms and markets.

People, Ideas & Objects has used TCE to define the barriers between firms and markets in oil and gas. Specific modules that define and support the market are of course, the Petroleum Lease Marketplace, Resource Marketplace and Finance Marketplace. Have a look at the analysis of how Jack Bauer benefits and is hindered from both the hierarchy and a freelancing approach to his job.

If your an enlightened producer, an oil and gas investor or shareholder, who would be interested in funding these software developments and communities, please follow our Funding Policies & Procedures, and our Hardware Policies & Procedures. If your a government that collects royalties from oil and gas producers, and are concerned about the accuracy of your royalty income, please review our Royalty Policies & Procedures and email me. And if your a potential user of this software, and possibly as a member of the Community of Independent Service Providers, please join us here.

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Thursday, February 04, 2010

January 2010 Update

This update is to advise of the budget activities around our 2010 Budget & Planning. Our deadline of March 31, 2010 is one third closer then where we were at the start of this year. The amount of interest or contact with either producers or investors and shareholders in oil and gas has been none. We currently have no funding commitments.

To my way of thinking we have but one choice. To start these developments in 2010. The scope of this project can not be undertaken on a volunteer basis, it must have the full support of the industry.

If your an enlightened producer, an oil and gas investor or shareholder, who would be interested in funding these software developments and communities, please follow our Funding Policies & Procedures, and our Hardware Policies & Procedures. If your a government that collects royalties from oil and gas producers, and are concerned about the accuracy of your royalty income, please review our Royalty Policies & Procedures and email me. And if your a potential user of this software, and possibly as a member of the Community of Independent Service Providers, please join us here. Our next update will be on or around February 15, 2010.

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