What's In a Name...

One of the fundamental underlying beliefs of People, Ideas & Objects is that for the oil and gas industry to increase its output requires that we re-organize. Adam Smith wrote in his book, The Wealth of Nations, that all economic growth was a result of the division of labor and specialization. Applying these principles have been the primary means for all economic growth since Smith wrote his book in 1776. That is to say that all economic growth has been the result of the reorganization of labor around enhanced divisions of labor and further specialization.

Professor Paul Romer of Stanford University and New York University is a proponent of what has come to be known as New Growth Theory. We have written about Romer on this blog many times before. In this Reason Magazine interview Romer talks about his People, Ideas and Things as the three underlying themes of new growth theory. I have taken these themes as the basis of our name People, Ideas & Objects and only transferred Objects for Things as we are Object based software developers.

(From Reason)

As one of the chief architects of "New Growth Theory," Paul Romer has had a massive and profound impact on modern economic thinking and policymaking. New Growth Theory shows that economic growth doesn't arise just from adding more labor to more capital, but from new and better ideas expressed as technological progress. Along the way, it transforms economics from a "dismal science" that describes a world of scarcity and diminishing returns into a discipline that reveals a path toward constant improvement and unlimited potential. Ideas, in Romer's formulation, really do have consequences. Big ones.

So what does all this mean. Simply new growth theory, and the reason it resonates here at People, Ideas & Objects is that these underlying concepts can multiply the output of industries.

(From Romer’s Paper Economic Growth)

Every generation has perceived the limits to growth that finite resources and undesirable side effects would pose if no new recipes or ideas were discovered. And every generation has underestimated the potential for finding new recipes and ideas. We consistently fail to grasp how many ideas remain to be discovered. The difficulty is the same one we have with compounding: possibilities do not merely add up; they multiply.

People, Ideas & Objects provides the oil and gas industry with a means to have people, their ideas and things to be used in new and innovative ways. By having the software, and most importantly a software development capability available to accommodate the changes made from any new ideas, the industry can realize its full potential. This is what Professor Romer is talking about in New Growth Theory and what is enabled here by the software and particularly the software development capability proposed by People, Ideas & Objects.

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.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. Email me here if you need an invite.

So Much For SLA's...

Building on yesterday’s post of how the Preliminary Specification is what the software development team will be building to. In today’s post we discuss the use of Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) in the People, Ideas & Objects community. Simply SLA’s will not be used by People, Ideas & Objects in determining software definitions.

It would seem counter productive to have the community established to produce the Preliminary Specification. With the producers, users, service industry and others being a critical part of that community. And then have some producers not participating in that community because they feel they have their needs contractually agreed to through an SLA with People, Ideas & Objects. SLA’s have been the traditional manner in which firms have managed their technological needs and they will probably see no reason to change this culture. However, there will be no SLA’s here to manage the software definitions.

By contractually defining the relationship between the producer firm and PI&O within an SLA. The producer would seek to manage the specific details of the SLA and claim that we are in technical default when our main page did not load within the 0.125 seconds or other such nonsense. This is the state of vendor relationships when SLA’s get in the way.

As we stated yesterday. Our developers will be developing software that meets the needs of the producers as defined in the Preliminary Specification. If the producers do not wish to participate in the Preliminary Specification that is their choice and therefore their needs will not be specifically met. However, if they are interested in having software that meets their needs, and are willing to actively participate to define their specific, detailed needs then the community is the place for them to be. You’ll have to give up your SLA’s, but maybe those agreements have had better days.

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.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. Email me here if you need an invite.

Developing to the Preliminary Specification

Through out the course of software developments, People, Ideas & Objects (PI&O) developers will be developing software to the Preliminary Specification. That may be another obvious comment but it may not be too obvious from the point of view that I want to stress in this blog post. The possibly not-so-obvious nature of the comment is that the community is responsible for the accuracy of the application. If there is an error in the software, it will naturally translate to an error in the Preliminary Specification. Therefore the community must ensure that the Preliminary Specification, they approve, is correct.

So what does this mean? The old systems adage garbage in, garbage out. So how do we ensure the quality of the Preliminary Specification? Here are just a few of the many reasons that PI&O’s approach is different.

Users
There has never been a user focused development like PI&O. Where the responsibility and authority for quality fall exclusively within the domain of the user community. Where the user community is comprised of the producers, service providers, society and individuals as vested interests in their software.

Eyeballs
The product of the community, the Preliminary Specification, will be available on a read only wiki to everyone. Ensuring that anyone and everyone in the industry can have input through the community.

Unconstrained approach
People, Ideas & Objects approach to development is unconstrained by the demands of existing software code. And is unconstrained by the installed base of any software currently in use. It is a clean slate approach that is oil and gas industry focused, based on what is needed.

Draft Specification
Guided by an overall vision of what is possible. The Draft Specification provides an understanding of what is possible when we use the Joint Operating Committee as the key organizational construct of the innovative oil and gas producer. Using this vision as the starting point of the community developments ensures that the Preliminary Specification will be all that it can be.

Proper Scope and Highly Engineered Solutions. 
Our budget accepts the realities of developing a solution with these aspirations. We have also provided an overall value-proposition to the producer firms that participate with PI&O. One in which producers receive highly engineered software solutions at very low costs. 

These are just a few of the many things that People, Ideas & Objects provide our users and producers. 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.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. Email me here if you need an invite.

McKinsey on Big Data

In this paper McKinsey are writing about what they call “Big Data” which they define as “datasets whose size is beyond the ability of typical database software tools to capture, store and analyse.” Although their recommendations are limited to this definition I find that they apply to the growth in data in general. In particular McKinsey’s recommendations may be applicable to the data sets that are in use in business and particularly the growth of data that may occur in the very near future. Specifically in oil and gas it is anticipated that the demand for data will continue to grow. People, Ideas & Objects have anticipated this growth and based our architecture on a Technical Vision that can accommodate that growth.

McKinsey’s “Big Data” recommendations are listed here. The full report is available here. It is a comprehensive report, however I do recommend reading at least the Executive Summary.

1. Data have swept into every industry and business function and are now an important factor of production.
2. Big Data creates value in several ways.
1. creating transparency
2. enabling experimentation to discover needs, expose variability, and improve performance.
3. segmenting populations to customize actions.
4. replacing / supporting human decision making with automated algorithms.
5. innovating new business models, products and services.
3. Use of Big Data will become a key basis of competition and growth for individual firms.
4. Use of Big Data will underpin new waves of productivity growth and consumer surplus. 
5. While the use of Big Data will matter across sectors, some sectors are poised for greater gains. 
6. There will be a shortage of talent necessary for organizations to take advantages of Big Data. 
7. Several issues will have to be addressed to capture the full potential of Big Data.

To deal with the associated issues of data People, Ideas & Objects Draft Specification provides two modules. The Analytics and Statistics Module which is looking at the producer firms data and Performance Evaluation Module which looks at the Joint Operating Committee data.

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.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. Email me here if you need an invite.

McKinsey, Google's Eric Schmidt

Its the weekend and that means McKinsey. This Saturday’s post provides a video of Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt talking on business culture, technology and social issues. I find that Eric Schmidt’s video presentations are as informative and valuable as those of Apple’s Steve Jobs. As such when either make presentations on any topic they are in the must view category. This McKinsey video doesn’t disappoint, enjoy.

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.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. Email me here if you need an invite.

Revisiting our Wish List

As part of our Phase Two proposal we published our “wish list” of who we would ideally like to have subscribe to our developments. These firms and national oil companies provide the majority share of oil and gas production in the world. And as such, should we be successful in securing these producers we would have a large subscription base in which to draw our funding from. Again this would be the ideal situation for People, Ideas & Objects (PI&O).

One of the key deliverables of the Preliminary Specification is the geographic scope of the application. If we had the “wish list” as our subscribing base, then this geographic scope would replicate the geographic area of the subscribing producers. Its as simple and obvious as that, however something that maybe needs to be stated explicitly.

Once our subscribing producers have set the scope of the PI&O application during the Preliminary Specification; going back and adjusting the scope in the Detailed and Final Specification will be difficult, expensive and time consuming. In fact changing the scope of the application after the Preliminary Specification has been set is something that should not be done. Therefore the next opportunity for the community to adjust the scope of the application would be when the Final Specification is complete, and we begin the Preliminary Specification for the next iteration of development. In other words those that miss this opportunity to participate in defining the scope of the Preliminary Specification in the first iteration of development, may still participate in the community, however will have to wait to have their unique needs met in subsequent iterations of development.

Waiting has its costs, as has been stated here before, the additional costs of the late fees, and possibly the most costly aspect of missing out on the initial scope of the Preliminary Specification might be that of an outsider looking in. Some might argue that the scope of our wish list is too ambitious. An alternative scenario that I see forming is that the Preliminary Specifications scope is formed around the America’s. This being more controllable from the point of view of what is possible and probable. We have based our organization around the Houston area to deal with the determination of any scope of the application. Given time the wish list may become possible and probable, and maybe the reality of such an application won’t seem so impossible.

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.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. Email me here if you need an invite.

Phase Two Proposal

It seems odd to suggest that a start-up software company would have a multi-billion dollar capital project on hand as its first task. People, Ideas & Objects (PI&O) is such a start-up software company, however, we are also adopting many of the attributes of a project management organization. Undertaking a large project of this scale and scope is not something that is unusual for a project management office to undertake. Combining and focusing the resources of industry to build the software described in the Draft Specification therefore is not that unusual.

When we look at the task at hand from the project management perspective it doesn’t seem so out of place. Phase Two looks to build the Preliminary Specification and build the beginnings of the organizational infrastructure necessary to project manage the software development through the Detailed and Final Specifications. An organization with the people needed to carry the weight through the various phases of development and then through the subsequent iterations.

Most project management organizations are focused around an engineering task. Whether that is a building a gas plant, an offshore rig or some other asset that needs to be built to a certain specification. The project management organization is the ideal means to generate the one-off type of large scale development.

People, Ideas & Objects is engineering focused and fits this form as well. There is a few unique attributes that make this quite different from most project management organizations. The first is that there is a high level of maintenance of the software code. A large service organization will be needed to maintain the application on a day to day basis and this will be maintained by PI&O and through our proposed Hardware Policies & Procedures.

Secondly, most engineering focused projects are done for the ultimate ownership of the payor. PI&O is different as this project is initiated by myself, and therefore I have earned the Intellectual Property (IP) rights. That IP is needed to raise the fees from producers, organize the community and focus the financial resources on one solution.

Lastly ownership of PI&O has to remain third party to all of the producers. No other producer will be interested in using a solution that is owned and operated by Exxon, Shell or any other producer. This third party nature maintains an objective means in which to deal with the needs of all of the producers in a fair and equitable manner.

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.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. Email me here if you need an invite.

New Position, President

Thinking through the organizational structure of the People, Ideas & Objects management. I have come to the conclusion that with the work that we are undertaking here that it would be better to have some additional “bench strength” in the executive. That is why I am creating the position of President, a role that I was to previously fill, to help round out the team.

The position of president will be an officers position and will involve this individual providing their strengths in areas where the firm needs more resources. When we think about the type of work that we are undertaking, the probability that we are finding areas that need attention are many, and the manner of that attention is not minor in its importance. The ability to put an officer on the situation and get it up to speed quickly would be a great help to the organization.

So that is what we are going to do. The position of president of People, Ideas & Objects will be added to the list of individuals that we will be looking to add to the organization once we secure our budget. These positions are open to all that may wish to apply for them and are permanent full time, or available as secondment from our participating producers.

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.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. Email me here if you need an invite.

Summary of our Budget Discussions

So ends our quick discussion on some of the points of our budget. Large in size though our budget may be, I think we can all agree that the scope and scale of the People, Ideas & Objects (PI&O) application, along with the need for that application in the marketplace, are needed today. Anyone proposing to build an application that begins to solve the problems that the industry faces will need to address the budget requirements that are of this scale.

People, Ideas & Objects have proposed a reasonable Revenue Model to raise the financial resources to meet these budget requirements. It is a fair and equitable model that provides benefits to those that participate early. After all early participation is where the real benefits lay.

We have shown how the copyright has the ability to ensure success of this project by ensuring that there will be no knock-off software developments siphoning financial resources off of this development. That the copyright enables the industry to focus all of its resources on this one software development and ensure that it is a highly engineered and focused on delivering a successful application.

How unique attributes of geographic regions, like Canadian royalty and oil sands requirements, can still be handled through the Preliminary Specification. That large software development costs for unique areas does not necessarily preclude producers from participating in the PI&O software development activities.

People, Ideas & Objects have benefited from the maturation in Information Technology and will continue to do so. The revolution in development tools and methodologies have brought our cost estimates in line with what is possible, our delivery times into the realm of truly surprising and the quality of our deliverables into the surreal. We stand at a very important point in time.

Lastly the time is now for the community to form and begin the Preliminary Specification. Our time-lines, start and finish dates depend on securing our budget for the Preliminary Specification. We have budgeted $100 million for this task and expect that the community will have significant influence in the determination of their time-lines. More patience is what is needed, but the time for everyone to act is now.

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.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. Email me here if you need an invite.

Time-lines, Start and Finish Dates

Time-line's, start and finish dates are things that we can only dream about now, but are still something that should be discussed. None of these things can begin until the money has been secured. And as of today we have received no commitments from industry whatsoever. This software development project will not be funded on a pay as you go basis. Each of the next three phases of the development will need to have the commitments from industry secured before each phase of development begins.

It is at this time that I do not have the resources to even begin the campaigning to raise the money for the Preliminary Specification. So if there is a producer that wants to begin this process, please step up. Any support would be appreciated.

How long will the Preliminary Specification take. There is no time limit set at this time for the community to complete the Preliminary Specification. It is something that will need to take the input of the necessary parties to gather and codify the work of thousands of people. Removing duplications and ensuring complete coverage will require many eyeballs. And that is not something that can be completed based on a deadline that I can specify at this time. Nor will I be the one to specify the deadline.

One thing for certain is that the Preliminary Specification can’t be rushed. It will take the time for people to think what it is that they want and need in their applications. The Draft Specification provides an overall vision or beginning, but there is so much more that is possible when people get together.

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.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. Email me here if you need an invite.