So much to do, so little time.

We are reminded today that we have to deal with the transition from the old economy to the new. The poorly managed companies are begining to fail and the demand for energy is affecting the energy prices in a material way. Although I suggested that the Western economies "may" go through a similar period that the Former Soviet Union experienced in the late 1980's. This was premised on the works of Sir Anthony Giddens and Carlota Perez. There is not much difficulty in gaining a consensus on this basis, but I would suggest the time to build the new systems and organizations is limited. 

Today shows why. We have three articles that suggest the energy industry will be changing again as fast as it has changed in the last 18 months. First up is the head of Total Petroleum in France talking to the Financial Times with the following prognosis. 

The world will never be able to produce more than 89m barrels a day of oil, the head of Europe's third-largest energy group has warned, citing high costs in areas such as Canada and political restrictions in countries such as Iran and Iraq.

Christophe de Margerie, chief executive of Total, the French oil and gas company, said he had revised his forecast for 2015 oil production downward by at least 4m barrels a day because of the current economic crisis and the collapse in oil prices.

He noted that national oil companies, which control the vast majority of the world's oil, and independent producers, which play a key role in finding new sources, were "substantially limited in their ability to fund investments in the current [financial] environment"

A serious problem is being created by the lack of focus by the producers. Prices and production are going to become a problem again.

Next up we have the Fox News network article entitled "IEA Sees Risk of Oil Supply Crunch From 2010 ".

LONDON--The International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Monday there could be an oil supply crunch from 2010 once global demand recovers and the impact of delayed investment crimps future supplies.

And lastly on the BBC , the market for crude oil was up today as the IEA made its comments. If anyone believes the existing bureaucracies are the way that these problems will be solved we could just sit and wait for the upturn in the prices. If we thought that this time was was more then just a recession, but an opportunity to make wholesale changes, now would be the time to start developing the People, Ideas & Objects application. 

In the past five years I have been able to think through the development of the system to create the eleven module Draft Specification . This took a lot of time and energy for me to do. Now the much needed work of thousands of people needs to begin putting some building materials on the foundation of this design. That is going to be done through participation in the Preliminary Specification . And it will take more time, possibly as much as another five years. We need to get started, so please join me here .

Technorati Tags: People's Call-to-action Development Economics Leadership

What kind of work?

Lets give some thought to the types of companies that will make up our Community of Independent Service Providers (CISP). Those people that will use the People, Ideas & Objects software application modules in their day to day servicing of their oil and gas producer clients. Those people that will interact with the developers of People, Ideas & Objects to define and build the People, Ideas & Objects applications to meet the needs of their producer clients.

Being a member of the "Community of Independent Service Providers" provides these people with two revenue streams. One being for the services provided to their producer clients. And for their time and efforts in defining and working with the developers. 

The point of this exercise is to build the systems and communities that provide the innovative oil and gas producer with the most productive and profitable means of operation. Lets' for a moment think about this. If the combination of this software and community provide the producer with the most profitable oil and gas operations, is it the ownership of the oil and gas assets that are the most lucrative, or access to the software and community the most lucrative element in the oil and gas business. I think it is the software and community and that is the primary reason that people should join this project and start building the software and the community.

Access to the Intellectual Property (IP) that makes up this system software and community is made through the license that will be signed by each member of the community. This license assigns any IP generated in the development of the application back to me, the originator of the idea of using the Joint Operating Committee. This in turn, through the license is granted back to each member of the community for them to use in an unencumbered fashion. Since all the IP is centralized and made available to everyone we are not subjected with potentially thousands of IP related claims that kill the possibility of this community developing and flourishing. I in turn use the IP to generate the necessary revenues from the producers to pay the community for their work with the developers, and the developers themselves. Producers then are paying for the software and services that the community provides separately. 

On to the subject at hand, what kind of work would the people in the community be doing? I foresee the community being very large. Essentially I do not see the industry employing anyone directly. Each individual may have their own enterprise in which they provide some value added service to the producers. These firms may be single proprietors or larger. Initially I think that all of them will be single proprietors that form as a result of this call for this community. Economically the old ways are being consumed by their failures, we can easily skip this by starting from a blank slate. The types of businesses will be in the areas of expertise you would find in the administrative, exploration and production areas. Or as I said, pretty much everyone.

We have defined in the Draft Specification that the division of labor and specialization will need to be enhanced for their to be a more productive industry. These attributes will have to be determined by the community understanding what is necessary and what is possible. 

I probably have made the understanding of what and how the work will be done in the future a little more confused. It is a future that is not well defined as the input from the community has been very minor up to this point. My responsibility was to provide a workable vision of how I think the industry could and should operate based on the research that I conducted. The knowledge held within the user community will be necessary to optimize the system to meet the objective of being the most profitable means of a producer to manage their oil and gas assets. That is the motivation. The communities purpose is not represented in a one to one agreement that provides individuals with the employment contract. The purpose is to ensure that the community is competitive in its offerings in comparison to any other oil and gas system. This is how the members of the community will earn their living and keep moving the oil and gas industry forward. It is a value based offering, not one that is dependent on the employee - employer concept of "doing a job". Please join me here. 

In this post I am establishing a new Label and Tag for CISP. I will also summarize these thought in a new knol located here.

Technorati Tags: People's CISP Community Innovation Knowledge Strategy

Watch those productivity stats.

Click on the title of this entry to be taken to a Wall Street Journal blog on productivity. We are well within the time period where the revolutionary impact of Information and Communication Technologies are affecting individuals and societies. Organizations are failing in terms of their ability to match the progress and demands of people and society. That is my summation of both Professor Carlota Perez long wave economic theories and Professor Anthony Giddens Structuration theory. Both suggest strong revolutionary changes are needed for progress to continue. Our current economic difficulties are predicted and based on these theories.

Computer technology has developed over the last 50 years and has matured to the point where, I believe, its promise to deliver is in the immediate future. We certainly have gone through many periods of time when the technologies appeared mature enough to effect what happens, and we know that those episodes have met with limited success, and at times spectacular failure. However, if we look at the impact of technology on society it can be generally agreed that it has been phenomenal in its scope and scale.

We stand at a period of time when it is not about the technology. "It's the economy stupid" in a quote from Bill Clinton. We have proceeded along without making the necessary changes in our organizations that people and societies have demanded and technology has enabled. The bureaucracy was a remarkably effective means of organization and served us well for the many decades. Today this way of life is too slow, particularly in its time lines for making decisions. And too withdrawn from the details and needs of the business. Generic business strategies applied over long periods of time to many disparate assets; make for the earnings potential that was adequate for the business' of yesteryear. We need more in order to optimize the output of the world economy. The sustainability of the never changing bureaucracy is at its end. Instead of creating value we are actively destroying it in our day to day activities with these organizations.

Organizations are changing. What we see are the developments of people using technology to more efficiently do the things that build value. These are reflected in the current productivity statistics that modern advanced economies are now realizing. What every other statistic is showing is a steep and significant slide. Business' of all kinds are being challenged with their own useful life. Earnings are deteriorating and what can be done to solve this economic malaise is happening as a result of the installed base of technology. That's right, technology is solving the problem. The productivity stats, particularly in the U.S. are showing a counter economic signal.

For the past ten years productivity has continued in a manner that defies previous understanding of what is possible. It is clear the bureaucracies enhanced productivity is a result of the impact of Information & Communication Technologies.

And if technology can enhance the performance of a bureaucracy, just imagine what it could do if the optimal oil and gas organizational construct, the Joint Operating Committee (JOC). The legal, financial, operational decision making, communication and cultural means of the oil and gas industry were augmented with these technologies? What could be possible. To suggest that the daily commute becomes archaic would be my first hope.

It's clear to me that the technologies have matured and society has benefited. People using the iPhone and the near ubiquitous home computer are compromised in their productivity by their managers need for attendance and the unnecessary ritual of being at the office. This is not to say that the office is something that will expire in its usefulness. It may be the ideal place for teams to meet and solve the big problems they are faced with. Imagine the JOC representative engineers of the producer firms getting together to evaluate and implement a new idea that promises to unleash more value for its owners. A team meeting room may be the best possibility.

The volume of comment and discussion of these trends is entering the mainstream business media. It's time for action, and please join me here. At times I have highlighted the podcasts of Professor Russ Roberts. He has the Podcast EconTalk and is a Professor at George Mason University as well as a Fellow at the Hoover Institute. In his blog he made the phenomenally clarifying statement. 

Good politics requires action, constant proof that the politician is working tirelessly.

Good economics requires quiet consistency so people can plan for the future.

The times we live in are the greatest example in my lifetime of the tension between these two goals.

Technorati Tags: People's Productivity Innovation Change

Shell's van der Veer get's it.

First off I need to declare that I am a Shell brat. My father was employed with Shell Canada for over 33 years and became one of their happy annuitants. I have been raised, fed and clothed by his work at Shell, by far the best oil and gas company in the world. This is for one and only one reason, it hires the best people. I am only disappointed that I was unable to work for Shell during my career, however, I look back fondly at the times in high shool that I worked in the mail room after grade 10 and their geological lab after grade 11.

Van Der Veer has captured the proper perspective and attitude for the oil and gas industry.

Energy demand will double between now and 2050,” van der Veer said today in a presentation at a Houston energy conference. “People like to have electricity and they like to drive in cars.

This is not a political issue, it is not a business issue, its a responsibility of the oil and gas industry that needs to get done. Doubling the demand for energy is probably correct, irrespective, it is our duty to meet the markets demands. What we have been consumed with these past 10 years is maintaining the status quo stock options, bonuses, salaries and perks for management. At least that is the case in CNRL, Petro-Canada, Encana and Nexen, our four little pigs. 

Does anyone suggest that we maintain the hierarchy until 2050? Of course not. Why is it acceptable, in this time of change, that we keep the failed and ineffective bureaucracy? Other then the bureaucracy hanging on to its failed ways, no one would reasonably suggest that the bureaucrats continue on to 2050.  Things are certainly different at Shell.

The Hague-based Shell, the world’s third-largest oil company by market value, is among a handful of petroleum producers that isn’t cutting spending this year on exploration and refineries in response to the $105-a-barrel decline in oil prices.

Keeping the past alive is for those that think our best is behind us. Join me here, and lets continue the journey to at least 2050.

Technorati Tags: People's Change Organization Strategy Trends

Professor Paul Romer on Banks.

First of all Professor Romer is someone we follow pretty closely here at People, Ideas & Objects. His new growth theories are short listed each year for the Nobel Prize in Economics. In a nutshell those new growth theories provide the replacement for the old growth theories of investing in Communications, Transportation and Financial infrastructure to expand an economy. His new growth theories are none other then simply People, Ideas and Things. The precursor to the name of this project.

As one of the chief architects of "New Growth Theory," Paul Romer has had a massive and profound impact on modern economic thinking and policy-making. 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.

Professor Romer is in the February 6th version of the Wall Street Journal with an interesting article entitled "Lets Start Brand New Banks" and in the February 6th Economist Magazine with "Lets Start a Bank". Romer suggests that instead of investing to recapitalize the banking system, it would be more effective to start new banks, and capitalize them with the remaining $350 billion in TARP funds. Noting that with the fresh cash in new banks, the ability to fund up to $3.5 trillion in new lending would occur under existing banking legislation.

This type of thinking resonates with me. Why not skip the failed capital restructuring? The first half of the TARP funds did nothing to spur lending, its intended purpose. Throwing more money at the banks will only provide the same results. Doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results is ...

I have another suggestion. Lets invest in new oil and gas companies. Firms like CNRL can be picked over by those that prefer to kick dead horses for a living. What we need is new organizations based on new and more innovative organizational constructs. Just as the Joint Operating Committee is the legal, financial, operational decision making, cultural and communication frameworks of the industry. Lets build a system that provides the software and services to support the Joint Operating Committee. A system that moves the hierarchies compliance, governance, tax, royalty and SEC requirements and aligns it to the Joint Operating Committee and its frameworks. The investors would then have the tools to manage the assets that they can cherry pick off the CNRL asset auctions. Providing as clean a break as Romer suggests for the banking system. Resurrecting old dinosaurs may make for great story lines in Hollywood, but not at this time and place in terms of the future capabilities of old organizations vs. new.

The investors that are disenchanted with the treatment and results of the previous managements, should fund these software developments and build these new organizations to make them profitable and productive for themselves and society. Carl Icahn was in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday, commenting on the topic of "Capitalism Should Return to Its Roots".  Mr Icahn states:

I have initiated United Shareholders of America to empower shareholders to institute changes, and I encourage you to join our cause. A majority of the U.S. population owns shares. Their voices need to be heard -- now -- on Capitol Hill and in the boardrooms of corporate America.

Mr Icahn's difficulties in dealing with management are well documented. I can assure you that I have faced many of the same difficulties in presenting the ideas around People, Ideas & Objects to the management of oil and gas concerns. Their attempts to steal these ideas and obstruct them from being developed is known by myself, and I can assure you I do not have the scope of Mr. Icahn's resources. 

Nonetheless I think we are in a time, and have a need that makes this software development project real and timely. Please join me here. 

Technorati Tags: People's Romer Economics Call-to-action Funding Icahn

Train wreck in progress.

Looking at Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL ) from the perspective of Professor Nouriel Roubini

Keep alive zombie banks and zombie corporations with balance sheets and debts that haven't been restructured, as in Japan, and you end up in an L-shaped near-depression.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd is one of our piggies and my personal favorite. They have done nothing to earn the abusive and hostile position they have taken in the industry. Being a bully helps to identify who your friends are, particularly during the downturns. My comments over the past few months are summarized in this list. 

• Fraudulent financial statements.
  
• Losing key shareholders.
  
• Incomplete Horizon project.
  

Based on those three attributes alone, CNRL qualifies as a Zombie Corporation that Roubini defines. There are many other issues that I have commented on before and they can be read here. What I want to focus on today is CNRL's Fourth Quarter Financial Statements. Or actually the lack of them. They won't be publishing their financials until March 5, 2009! What is this? We've seen Devon Energy and Conoco Phillips report large write downs in their asset values. We've seen the reports of BP, ExxonMobil and Shell. So how come we have to wait so long for CNRL.  

I want to make it clear that the non-publication of completed financial statements is a fraudulent act. As an accountant it is well known that if your peers have issued their statements, everyone will have, more or less, completed theirs. Why has CNRL postponed the publication to March 5, 2009? There is no legitimate reason to not have issued them. The tried and true comment that the Auditors are not finished is no longer valid. Not many companies would be subject to any audit induced changes. More of an issue of pride then practice, Management can interpret and apply the regulations as well as any auditor. 

So why is this an issue. Many people within and outside of the firm know what the financials state. Many will be regulated to not indulge in any trading of the firms shares. Many won't, and that provides a distinct advantage over the other "uninformed" shareholders. This deferral of statutory reporting imputes impropriety, and a lack of fortitude by the management to face the music. I think this firm is on the verge of collapsing and does not want to let the information out. If, as I suspect, they can't make mid-month payroll, they will collapse without the need to publish those disgusting financials they tried to pass off in the prior quarter . As I noted here, those statements took on a spectacular and surreal tone. Making funny revenue adjustments is best left in the hands of the crooks, of which CNRL is obviously ready and willing to join. 

My advice is to dump this companies shares as there is significant downside for any existing shareholder. This will be the first firm in which the market for investors will be able to buy the actual oil and gas properties at auction. Purchasing these assets to start over again with the software and Community of Independent Service Providers discussed in this blog, and referred to as People, Ideas & Objects.

All this and no mention or news of CNRL's heavy oil "Horizon" fiasco. Rest assured the property is one of those that will make it into the history books as one of the greatest boondoggles of an incompetent management. But don't think they can be let off the hook, incompetence is a defense of the truly desperate. These actions will be tried in the U.S. and just like Conrad Black and many others, there will be perp walks and convictions.

Technorati Tags: People's Pig Management Failure Economics

A bit under the weather.

I'm feeling a bit under the weather, I'll be back on Monday the 9th of February 2009.

The executioner is primed.

This headline showed up in the Calgary Herald the toay. It's taken me the better part of a day to refocus;

Brewing shareholder revolt puts Petro-Canada in hot seat.

It's been quiet from the point of view of our Piggies. Although Petro Canada reported losses for the last quarter of 2008. I have been waiting for more information to come in before I post anything. But this news article trumps anything that I could have written.

It seems that I am not the only one that is holding their nose as a result of the smell around here. The shareholders are not pleased either. Listen to this little tidbit.

The integrated oil company’s poor performance has riled its shareholders, including the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which is said to be preparing a 13D regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. That filing may signal a push for a change of control.

I think I'm going to put my pot on simmer and watch this one develop on its own. I also have a very interesting idea of what I think is happening at CNRL. Something seems to be developing there with the recent dumping of the firm by Fidelity, and now they are not going to report their quarters earnings until March 5, 2009? Conoco Phillips, ($68 billion market cap.) which I think is a bit bigger then CNRL ($18 billion market cap.), accountants have managed to get their financial's out over a week ago. Accountants at CNRL must need more sleep.

Something is seriously wrong at CNRL, and based on my November 10, 2008 suggesting the "questionable" nature of their third quarter report, I sense we're in for a surprise. I'll even give a little hint, it's on the Horizon, so stay tuned.

Technorati Tags: People's Pig Management Failure

Porter on Bloomberg on the Economy

In my original thesis I highlighted the work of Professor Michael Porter of Harvard University. Back in 2004 Porter was decades beyond his heyday of the late 1970's and early 1980's. Writing a number of books with title's like "On Competition" he set the tone for the focus on strategy in business. For some reason he was quiet since that time, however I am beginning to see more of him, particularly in the newer media like blog's and podcasts.

In the appendix to the thesis, under the section entitled "Analysis of the Software Development Industry" I used Porter's Five Forces analytical tool. The five forces consist of:

• Threat of substitute products.
• Rivalry among existing competitors.
• Bargaining power of suppliers.
• Bargaining power of buyers.
• Barriers to entry.

I used this tool to show the weakness of the oil and gas industry dependent software developer, was a fools game. The big suppliers like IBM, SAP and Oracle used the small developer to provide the new ideas, only to toss them aside when the ideas were fully valued in their firms. They also realized that the global scope of the oil and gas industry was approximately as valuable as one major auto manufacturer in terms of revenue. The oil and gas industry focus is not on any major software developers radar. It begs the question why the industries IT groups continue to purchase the SAP and Oracle product suites. No one ever went wrong recommending SAP to a bureaucracy, the perfect symbiotic relationship.

The ultimate substitute to the development of software is the use of human resources to fill in the demand from the business. This relegates people to the mundane jobs that are best handled by computers. The future will see people doing one of two jobs. Those that computers can't do, or physical labor and those that computers can assist in. The higher value added tasks of statistical analysis and decision making.

This analysis and debate also doesn't consider what is necessary from the point of view of what makes the best software, the users. That is why it so important that you join this community. The "Community of Independent Service Providers" are key to the long term sustainability of the People, Ideas & Objects software. The software and services will go hand in hand to making the oil and gas producer profitable. Is it now more important to own the producing oil and gas asset, or is it the software and associated services that make the oil and gas property profitable? That is the question potential members of this community should ask and is indeed the importance of this project.

What does Professor Porter have to say about the economy and business today? He is being interviewed at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland by Tom Keene of Bloomberg News. Keene asks the Professor what grade the current crop of bank management would be assigned.

"Oh god, this is worse then failing. This is incomplete, this is you don't graduate, this is a catastrophe. This is asleep at the wheel, that's inexcusable."

He also suggests that the source of our current economic difficulties is a result of the lack of leadership and mentoring in the finance industry. Where the wisdom that should have been applied was missing which permitted;

"This is a situation where innovation ran ahead of the capacity of the organization. Innovation ran ahead of the regulatory framework."

We run the same risks in oil and gas. If we continue as we are, the retirement of the brain trust in the energy industry will leave society with similar economic difficulties in the future oil and gas industry. This is doubly dangerous as the industry modus operandi continues to ostracize those with ideas. We need to be working together to build a better and more productive oil and gas industry and heed the call that this current economic situation, brought about the mismanagement by the banks, is indeed innovation running ahead of the regulatory framework.

The remaining part of the interview has Porter discussing the health care situation in the United States. It is particularly interesting that the problems within the health care industry are close to the difficulties in oil and gas. The motivation and misalignment of costs and revenues has the Doctors in the U.S asking if there is something better they could be doing. Porter suggests that organizational changes and innovation will be addressed and is being addressed to resolve these issues.

Technorati Tags: People's Harvard Innovation Strategy

McKinsey Video of Professor Hal Varian

McKinsey continue to impress with this latest video of Professor Hal Varian. He holds the dual role of Google Chief Economist and University of California at Berkeley Professor; and general all around thinker in Silicon Valley. I noticed that McKinsey are at the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland. I think it is reasonable to assume they will be heavily stimulated at this key conference and we should expect many more quality ideas to come from them.

This video is entitled "Hal Varian on how the Web challenges managers: Google’s chief economist says executives in wired organizations need a sharper understanding of how technology empowers innovation." Suggesting we are at a point in time where the component parts are now available, or as he suggests "Combinatorial Innovation". The difference between previous periods where component parts became available, today's "bits" of IT based ideas and information are shared without costs and are available to most of the people on the planet. We truly live in interesting times when something so simple is a fact of life, amazing.

Professor Varian quotes Alfred Chandler's seminal work in the 1930's and how the telegraph and railroad had a defining capability in the formation of our modern corporation. I have frequently commented on my frustration with the 2 hour / day ritual of driving to the office and back. Stating this drive was a waste of resources and asking if these same people drove home to make a personal phone call? Professor Varian makes the following comment and its impact on the way in which work will be conducted in the very near future.

Instead of people going to work, the work goes to you. And you can deal with the work at anytime and anyplace with the infrastructure that is in place.

Varian goes on to suggest that the ubiquity and affordability of the Internet will provide for a significant boost in productivity. That knowledge and intellectual property (IP) will be the basis of value. This is wholly consistent with my sense that the future earning power of individuals will be based on the ownership of IP, or more importantly for this community, that People have access to IP.

Noting that IP has been revolutionized by the Internet. Today ideas are published as soon as they are conceived. (At least that is what I am doing here.) This is wholly consistent with the ideas that were used to establish copyright. The act of publication is how the copyrights are earned. Allowing the world to find these ideas and build on them is the net benefit to society. Varian says this revolution is over, with the people willingly publishing and promoting the sharing of ideas.

This video is short, around 10 minutes, but the comments that are made are dramatic in their matter of fact-ness and importance to the work being done in People, Ideas & Objects. Professor Varian looks at the seemingly unimportant transaction. How today we can and do so many more transactions through automation. Also how in the future many things can and will be contracted for, and how the ability to confirm a transaction is carried out appropriately.

Much of the work that went in to defining the Draft Specification was based on my understanding of the oil and gas industry, and the academic research in the area of transactions. This work includes most importantly Professors Richard N. Langlois and Carliss Baldwin. What the Draft Specification is designed to accomplish is what Professor Hal Varian suggests. I think as a result of Langlois' work, we have been able to move from a software system that processes transactions, to include the ability to design transactions with the objective of building value. Processing transactions in a software system is necessary functionality of any system today. The real value will be in the ability to design the transaction in a manner that ensures the value that is possible is attained. And that is one of the many things that makes People, Ideas & Objects different.

Professor Varian suggests that he thinks an area where there is going to be another revolution is in the area of services. The community that forms here is how the energy industry will conduct its operations. Instead of the producers employing people directly, service based organizations will provide the resources for the producers to profitably explore and produce energy. These services will have the software development capability and software tools that are being built here in People, Ideas & Objects. And this "Community of Independent Service Providers" as I have been calling them; will apply those tools in value added services to the producers. None of these services have yet been defined, let alone built. These services are a critical aspect of this software development. Those people that wish to join this community and begin to build this software, and their own associated services should follow this process.

Technorati Tags: People's McKinsey Google Community Video Innovation

Nouriel says the "D" word.

This week we have been able to focus on the community that needs to form here. A community that needs to build the People, Ideas & Objects ERP styled software systems that are desperately needed for the oil and gas industry. Today we have a fairly strong dose of negative economic news, and I submit these latest articles to provide the support for the changes that are needed. If we don't act, we will be in a much more dire situation then we currently find ourselves.

First is Professor Nouriel Roubini states the "D" word. He also states that the five top U.S. Banks are insolvent. Nouriel may be the most famous economist due to his precise calling of this economic decline. Noriel has provided very sound quantitative and qualitative analysis of what is happening economically. Prescribing some of the remedies that are necessary to offset this decline. When he starts using the "D" word, I think it is very serious point. His most recent interview was on Wednesday with Bloomberg News "On the Economy" with Tom Keene at the Davos, Switzerland World Economic Forum. I highly recommend listening.

Next is the earnings of the oil and gas producers. Conoco Phillips fired the first shock in the season by reporting a loss of $31.8 billion for the fiscal 2008 year. Wow, must be a problem there.

Lastly the news comes from Forbes, Occidental Petroleum's Chairman finds that the current pricing structure is inadequate to cover the cost structure.

"The current oil and gas industry cost structure is higher than what the current product prices can support," said Dr. Ray Irani, the company's chairman, who said the company would lower its 2009 capital spending budget to $3.5 billion to protect its returns.

Hm must be a problem there. Just a note, I don't think I will be reporting on any more oil and gas company earnings outside of the Pigs. (CNRL, Nexen, Petro Canada and Encana.) Conoco is a well run firm, however, that is in the context of last centuries performance. The Pigs are deserving to get stuffed and I'll continue on as they release their losses.

The need for this community is evident, and is on display in almost every business article written today. The economic decline is going to get much worse, the oil and gas companies are being questioned with their own survival, and the need for this community to form and get on with the job of building the next generation systems AND organizations is now, please join me here in doing these critical tasks.

Technorati Tags: People's Community Economics Failure Energy

Davos, Switzerland

I have highlighted the writings of Bruce Nussbaum of BusinessWeek magazine on this blog before. Among other things he writes the NussbaumOnDesign weblog, (subscribe to the RSS feed). My previous posts of his are here and here. Since his writing, the topics he covers (Design and Innovation), and the ideas that he raises are valid to this community, I am setting up a label (to aggregate his posts within the Innovation in Oil and Gas weblog) and Technorati tag / URI for Nussbaum (to aggregate posts within all blogs that have been tagged Nussbaum.)

He is in Davos, Switzerland for the annual World Economic Forum. In a series of articles he is metaphorically letting the rubber hit the road. Arguing that the people that are discussing the economic consequences of the current economy are the ones that brought the problems to us, and are not necessarily the people who will be getting us out of this economic mess anytime soon. I highly recommend reading his post here.

A “transformational crisis” is the term used in the opening session of the World Economic Forum by founder Klaus Schwab to describe the state of the global economy today. Institutions are not working, unemployment is soaring and we have to first manage the crisis, then manage a new world post-crisis. (Italics are my emphasis.)

The real critical aspect of his posting is that he suggests the people who are the ones that will be making the transition are not necessarily in attendance, or are relegated to the sidelines at Davos. Nonetheless there are a number of very valid quotations that I would like to highlight.

Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, News Corporation, USA, and Co-Chair of the Annual Meeting 2009. “Don’t let’s lose sight of what creates wealth; it’s open markets, capitalism and we’ve proved this again and again in last century,” he cautioned.

Werner Wenning, Chairman of the Board of Management, Bayer, Germany, and Co-Chair of the Annual Meeting 2009. “We’re talking about growing populations; we have to address issues of how to secure energy supply and of climate change; we’re also talking a lot about sustainability and returning to the basics of sustainable behaviour.”

Bingo, we are being challenged by so much more then just an economic mess. This is why this community that we are building for the oil and gas industry is so critical. Without the necessary systems being built for the future organization, we will not get anywhere close to this future. Software systems are the glue that make organizations work. Using the Joint Operating Committee in the oil and gas industry is the critical organizational construct of the innovative producer. It is the legal, financial, operational decision making, cultural and communication frameworks of the industry. SAP and Oracle, who define and support the bureaucracy, are able to provide compliance and governance for the SEC, Tax, and Royalty regimes. They DO NOT recognize this critical organization, the JOC, in their software.

Nussbaum in a second posting for today, writes the following highlights from what he has entitled "Fear in Davos"

It’s midnight and I’ve talked with maybe 20 really smart people so far at Davos (yep, very dense population of very smart people at the World Economic Forum) and the consensus is that a deep fear is running through the conference this year. Things could be much worse, is the message.

And,

One senior public European figure told me “First we had the financial crisis. We still have that plus an economic crisis. Now we’re getting both plus a political crisis. This is getting ugly.”

We can chase new ideas around the table for a number of years. We no longer have that time or luxury. Understanding that using the JOC is the real key to innovation in the industry is something that I have been doing for the last 5 years. The idea of using the JOC has been thought through to the point where a total overall vision (the Draft Specification) is ready to be implemented. It details what using the JOC could provide if we built this software. Wasting time thinking of new ways to organize is unnecessary.

Critical to this possibility is the ability of a community to take the Draft Specification and produce a Preliminary Specification. But this community, which is very large and understands what I have been writing about, is ready to move. The oil and gas people in Davos are not the ones that are going to see these changes implemented. It is you the reader of this web log, and the concerned member of the oil and gas industry that belongs in this community, please join me here.

Technorati Tags: People's Nussbaum Change Community Ideas User

Innovation Engines and more.

Booz, Allen, Hamilton and the Aspen Institute hold an annual conference to discuss many issues. The 2008 event is summarized in a document entitled "Harnessing the Power of Ideas" which include two very interesting and pertinent articles to the work we are doing here. These papers deal with energy, innovation and the community based approach.

Innovation Engines: Where Will the Next R & D Breakthroughs Come From?

The article asks the very pertinent question:

Rather as evidenced in the 2007 Strategy + Business study The Customer Connection: The Global Innovation 1000, increased return on investment is directly associated with a market driven, customer focused R & D strategy. Moreover, consumers are participating more directly in innovation and technology development, signaling the innovation landscape may be moving from the top down, Manhattan Project style model to a networked, continuously adapting and evolving "Google Style" approach. Are these developments temporary, or will "innovation engines" continue to change? Are traditional top down models still effective? p. 3

These and other questions are asked in the document but are not answered. More a call for answers. Here I can state unequivocally that the Manhattan Project style would never work in bringing an innovative software development project on-line. Score one for the Google Styled approach.

Megacommunities: Addressing Global Challenges Through Collaborative Networks

This article is right on topic with what is being done here. Defining the People, Ideas & Objects user and developer community as a megacommunity resonates with me. In their "why this matters" section it is stated:

Our increasingly globalized and interconnected world is creating issues too large for one authority to solve alone. The issues we face - environment risks, energy security, climate change, food and drug safety, global health - are so complex and involve such a diverse set of stakeholders that traditional methods of problem solving are ineffectual. In response, we see new types of collaboration emerging. p. 14

More particularly this quote gives me goose bumps.

A megacommunity approach helps create the conditions for translating complex issues into clear solutions. More than a large community of people, megacommunities are collections of organizations whose leaders and members have deliberately come together across national, organizational, and sector boundaries to reach the goals they cannot achieve alone. This tri-sector engagement of similarly concerned organizations focuses on a clearly defined  issue where the vital interests of those organizations converge. A megacommunity focuses an issue so that it is clearly defined but not oversimplified. The issue is scaled, but it maintains its complexity. p. 15

Download the .pdf and use it as a guide to increase your involvement in this megacommunity.

Web 2.0 and Beyond: What Does the Cyber Future Hold?

Discussion of the cloud and its impact is beginning to generate interest and discussion. This article presents some of the issues of web 2.0 technologies from the point of view of speed. I appreciate this discussion and ask, although the pace may be too fast for most of us, what does a bureaucracy do in the face of this viable and developing alternative. From their "Why this matters" section:

Web 2.0, the latest technology trend in computing and communications, is popular slang for a series of dynamic, interactive applications producing new forms of technological and social interaction. The lightening pace of web 2.0 technological innovation and evolution challenges our ability - as individual users, communities (real and virtual), and cultures - to grapple with its immediate and enduring implications. As these technologies increase connectivity, decentralize power, and facilitate mass collaboration, cyberspace presents a formidable dilemma for policy makers: What does the future of cyberspace hold, and how might policymakers shape it? p. 29

Interesting question. What I would suggest the oil and gas investor, the government agencies and particularly the progressive minded producers do, is to get on board and start pulling their weight. There is no control or "shaping" if your not here, no one can hear you.

Fueling the Future: Sustainable Choices for a New Transportation Landscape. and Food, Fuel, and Famine: Will Biofuels Starve Us or Save Us?

And lastly these two articles ask the right types of questions in my mind as to what the future holds in terms of energy production. Those in the oil and gas industry know that the endowment of oil and gas can not be replaced by man made synthetics. This is a very dangerous discussion. One that can cause significant issues in our very near future. We need to realize the most effective way to fuel the future is through a combination of aggressive exploration of the earth sciences and engineering disciplines, and their application in the oil and gas industry. We also need to reduce the amount of energy we consume by more effectively using what we have. Driving to work in the morning is becoming more and more ridiculous by the day. Join me here and lets build systems that will reduce the daily commute to simply logging in to People, Ideas & Objects .

Technorati Tags: People's Innovation Energy Organization Strategy

Users. The 5 w's and how.

Yesterday I highlighted an article from McKinsey regarding the rebels that are needed to overturn the poor non performing bureaucracy. Establishing that one of the objectives that I am trying to meet for 2009 is the recruiting of 100 "users" for extending the Draft Specification into the Preliminary Specification. I thought it might be worthwhile to clearly identify what I think these people will do, and answer some of the questions that may be asked. First of all the community of people that read this blog on a regular basis are here for a reason, and that first and foremost means you may be interested in further exploring what needs to be done and how you could fit into the community.

I want to reiterate the terms of these first 100 individuals by defining what is expected of them and what is required. The first item of business will be to review the process of how they join the community. Special emphasis should be placed on the summary submission of your contribution. This should include how you expect to extend your organization as a key or cornerstone "Community of Independent Service Provider".

Why will these people join?

They know in their hearts that the current system is not working. That the need for the industry to move to a higher level of performance is necessary, and they have ideas that will make a difference.

Who are these people.

People who have worked in oil and gas for at least 5 years. Engineers, earth scientists, administrators, accountants, developers and generalists. People who are from the oil and gas companies, investors in oil and gas, government agencies and the service industries that depend on the energy industry. Anyone who can trace their salary or revenue from the energy industry as a whole. The focus is the Joint Operating Committee and therefore is limited to the up-stream end of the business.

These are people who are looking to establish their own service based offering to the oil and gas producers. This will be developed by using the People, Ideas & Objects software applications they build here, and use to deliver to their client producers. This is a business opportunity to the first 100 individuals that sign up. This is not an exclusive arrangement, it will be offered to everyone that joins the development. It is just these people will be the first 100 and will therefore have access to the knowledge and understanding to establish a service based offering.

Where are these people located.

From all corners of the world. One of the Preliminary Specifications deliver-ables is to determine the geographical scope of the application. I have set the minimum to be North and Central America. However, the demand for this type of application is universal and needs to consider the many voices who are part of the global oil and gas industry.

When are these people needed.

Today! Ideally we should have the full complement of 100 by this time next year. They will then undertake to establish their own guidelines, organization framework and deliver-ables. The scope of their undertaking is to set in motion the minimum required application functionality and process management.

How are these people going to do their job.

I have purposely left the Preliminary Specification as a blank slate. Although I expect the Draft Specification to be used as the initial input, there may be better ideas out there. These should be considered at the earliest possible time. The method that this will be done is through the collaborative environment established through the Google Apps for People, Ideas & Objects. This environment currently has many tools and is more then capable of providing what is necessary for these people to work throughout the world from their office and their home.

That's correct. I don't expect anyone to lose or have to quite their job while they are making this critical investment in the software or their service based offering. All of the activities in the Google Apps for People, Ideas & Objects are encrypted via https. Your boss will only know of your activities if you show them, or they too are members of this community.

What will they be doing.

Assessing what is possible and probable. What is the first commercial release of the application going to need and how will it attain that. What needs to be done in the client producer's to make the application available technically and business wise. In short answering a lot, if not all of the "what" and "how" questions that are needed to be asked before developers start to build the application.

In summary.

I do not expect to be inundated with a flood of initial contributors. However, these people will need to be of a fairly diverse subset of the industry. The need to have a good representation leads to much of the need for the high number. However, it would be up to those to determine how they organize themselves once they are together. Some people who apply may not initially be accepted. This does not preclude anyone from joining in the second round of recruiting. It is important to remember the second round will be a fully sponsored round, where contributions of both the first 100 and subsequent people will be paid for their efforts of working on this software. Industry has been very slow to pay any attention to this project. In other words $0.00 has been the income to date. And if we wait for them to start funding this development, it will be far to late by then. It is assumed by me that the opportunity to establish your service based offering in this initial round will provide tangible monetary results in the very near future. I therefore ask you to please join me here.

Technorati Tags: People's Community Collaboration Development Software

McKinsey on Market Rebels.

I have to say that I like this article, its writer, and the video that is included. (Click on the title of this entry) It has particular value to this community as we begin the process of recruiting members. To start off the opening paragraph states:

Activists who challenge the status quo play a critical but often overlooked role in both promoting and impeding radical business innovation. Their importance stems from the very nature of innovation, which frequently challenges existing interests, norms, values, social practices, and relationships. As a result, the joined hands of market rebels—activists and their recruits—have with surprising frequency exerted significant influence on market acceptance of breakthrough products and services.

This is more support for the changes prescribed by this community. I would suggest that the size of this community is very large for the type of change that is being prescribed. It is this community that is aware of the problems in oil and gas, aware of the details contained within the Draft Specification, and beginning to be aware of a possible role for themselves within these software developments. It truly is a community of rebels who are well positioned to move to accelerate the needed changes in oil and gas.

With lay-offs beginning in the industry, the demand for this community will begin to accelerate. Our appeal to the oil and gas investor and the government groups, with oil and gas royalties, are beginning. These two identified sources of revenues will soon begin to support the needs of the community and begin to offer an alternative means of employment and operating in the oil and gas industry. Both the software and the associated services of this community will better manage the oil and gas resources compared to the bureaucracy. This article shows that there are difficult roads ahead.

These examples and many others hold valuable lessons for executives pursuing innovation. The costs to consumers of adopting such innovations are high because adopters have to topple existing conventions. Stimulating collective endeavors that initiate social change can be a critical part of reshaping markets.

It has to be asked. Can the oil and gas industry as it exists today change to what is necessary for tomorrow? Will the bureaucracy still be in power in 10 years? These two questions show the future is not going to be met by our current organizations. As we roll into the 2008 annual earnings season. We will find that these companeis have ceased to find new oil and gas reserves and production to meet even last years performance. In some cases, such as Exxon Mobil's in 2007, they lost 10% of their production. Expect to see an acceleration of the production declines during 2008, and even an accelerated further decline in their projections. This communities job is not a luxury or a nice to have, it is a necessary action to ensure that society and people are provided with reasonable volumes of energy for years to come. These firms are failing and will not be around in ten years time based on today's performance.

To do so, companies must understand how market rebels forge a collective identity and mobilize support. Crucial for many activists is articulating a “hot cause,” which arouses emotion and creates a community of members, and relying on “cool mobilization,” which signals the identity of community members while sustaining their commitment. Companies also can boost their odds of harnessing the power of collective action by employing the right tactics, such as emphasizing two-way communication with consumers. Above all, a mind-set shift is needed: managers hoping to foster and encourage the diffusion of radical innovation need to start thinking like insurgents. Those who do so are likely to become more effective at influencing their own organizations too.

One of the objectives I had set out for this year was the recruiting of 100 individuals to take the Draft Specification and develop the Preliminary Specification of the People, Ideas & Objects software application. These "rebels" will be investing their time and capabilities in establishing their own Community of Independent Service Providers to support their use of this software in the producer firms they will represent. These people will be best able to take the ideas in the Draft Specification and determine what is required in terms of the application and the services that need to support it. These people will be defining the oil and gas industry and how it will operate in the future, and how their service based offerings are designed to keep the industry innovative.

Market rebels aren’t Molotov cocktail–throwing World Trade Organization (WTO) opponents. They are groups of individuals who together shape markets through hot causes, which arouse emotions, and through cool mobilization, which allows participants to realize collective identities. Executives that understand the roles and practices of market rebels are more likely to be successful innovation leaders.

Please join me here.

Technorati Tags: People's McKinsey Community Change Failure

The top 25 posts of 2008.

Much like other blogs I wanted to publish a "best of" list of the favorite content. I have been using Google's Feedburner service for many years and have watched this community grow. Google's acquisition of Feedburner was completed this past summer and as a result the domain changed and we have lost the cumulative "best of" or most popular data. However we still have the data from July 22, to December 31, 2008 as listed below.

Unfortunately, their is no information on the popularity of the Draft Specification which was published between December 2007 and August 2008. Google has made many positive changes to Feedburner and are still working very hard on improving the service. Here are the 25 most popular items on innovation in oil and gas. 

McKinsey, The Next Step in Innovation 

IBM CEO Sam Palmisano 

The State of the Energy Industry 

Carl Icahn's United Shareholders 

Recommitting to Sun Microsystems 

The Secret of Successful Strategy Execution 

Paris Hilton on Tuesday, Brittany on... 

Google Health, and its user interface 

Canadian Natural Resources Questionable Accounting 

Miss-allocated capital 

Times like these call for... 

The Economist on Cloud Computing 

The U.S. Election 

For the next 20 years. 

News Alert: Pigs can fly 

Encana, The software company 

Project Charter - Preliminary Specification 

Professor Peter Klein on Entrepreneurship 

What would an Anthropologist do 

International Energy Agency 2008 Report 

This little piggy built a house of straw. 

Beyond the Red Horizon 

British PM Gordon Brown, gets it. 

A Community of Independent Service Providers.

Why would accounting firms survive? 

Thanks for reading, and please join me here.

Technorati Tags: People's Summary

Just because they say yes...

... doesn't mean its ok. I thought we would have learned that lesson from the mortgage fiasco we are now experiencing. Just because a banker says you can have that new house does not mean that it's a wise decision. This logic is something that people should have thought about when it was happening, not when it's too late. 

Just as the mortgage broker, President Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress should heed the call to think twice about "stimulating the economy". We proved that Keynsianism was a flawed economic policy in the 1980's. Why is it now assumed that the problems brought about by easy money is going to be fixed by even easier money. Failure is a necessary element of economic change, and failure has to occur to make way for the new success. There is no way to avoid it. By delaying the organizational failures only makes it more costly in terms of higher unnecessary debt, and longer time frames.

We see here in an article from the New York Times  that the Chinese may be at the end of their unlimited financing of American consumption. What happens, President Barack "I'm in over my head" Obama, when the world says "no I'm not investing in that"; and the Obama budget meets the immovable mountain of the Chinese propensity to finance the American taste for debt . 

Moral hazard is here, no consequence from the government actions are considered. It's all just a matter of waving a magic Obama wand and all will be well. Or alternatively, we just dig ourselves into a much bigger hole to dig out of in the not so near future. 

Technorati Tags: People's Government Economics Failure

Apple's App Store and others.

What this post is about is the type of environment or community I see People, Ideas & Objects becoming. There are many types of communities that exist today that I can point to, and detail the attributes that appeal to me, and what I think should be emulated in "our" application modules. (Click on the title of this entry to be taken to a New York Times article on Apple's App Store.)

Google 

I am a prolific user of Google applications. Including Google Apps for People, Ideas & Objects where the Wiki, blog and many other productivity and collaboration applications are available. A regular Google Account also provides the ability to monitor and control the various data types that an individual is interested in. Consisting of more then 33 distinct applications, each is capable of managing a certain element of your world, and connect you with members of your community, whatever that may consist of. 

The attribute that I find Google Applications provide is a very good example of what the alleged "cloud" provides. Up to date applications that are available everywhere. This is the next element of the always-on Internet, and represents a huge leap in software value. When applications can be upgraded once, the speed benefits more then just the developers. The iterative development of software is possible, and users are put in the driver seat and in control of the applications features and functionality. 

Apple iTunes

iTunes, the application that just keeps getting better. Music, podcasts, radio, movies and TV. All of your entertainment in one easy to use, search-able database. And if you want to purchase a song or movie, the iTunes Store is just a click away. All the sophistication that is the iTunes application is available in the easiest interface. You have the opportunity to organize and manage your entertainment in unique and innovative ways like SmartPlaylists, and the new Genius functionality. 

The attribute that I find iTunes brings is the complete management of one element of your life. Your entertainment. What I would like to see is the user, who is in control of the developments for the oil and gas producer, use the People, Ideas & Objects application as their commercial environment. The place where they earn a living. 

Apple's App Store

We've all heard about the iPhone and its applications. Independent developers and firms that are selling "cloud" based services can develop an application very easily for the iPhone. With a huge Software Development Kit provided by Apple. A developer can make an application that could be a complete home run on the iPhone for as little as $50,000.00. With a readily available market, and distribution to consumers, developers are finding access to revenue streams of up to $500,000.00 / year. 

It should be made clear that this is the first time that a developer has been able to independently invest, market and earn based on their entrepreneurial skills. There have been markets such as SourceForge and Collabnet. But those are not necessarily ways to make money. They only provide for the ability, in the open source ideal, to being involved in making much better software. 

I am doing what is possible to make People, Ideas & Objects the second market for these developers. But theirs more, much more. This is also the marketplace where users will be able to actively participate in making the software they want and need, and also earn money for the time spent on working with developers and also their producer clients. 

The services associated with People, Ideas & Objects software are licensed to the users under contract. Developers and Users are able to look to the work being done here as part of their career and for monetary gain. As I have mentioned here many times before; the total cost of a global application with the full scope of a producer firm, is estimated to be in excess of one billion dollars. The majority of those revenues are distributed to the individuals who make the software what it is. The users and developers, please join me here. 

Technorati Tags: People's Apple Google Interface Entrepreneurial

The Parallel Revolution

A YouTube video in which the presenter suggests that parallelism is the biggest computer science issue of the past 50 years. Whether that is true or not is a subject of much debate. Parallel processing has been around for almost 15 years and has been a bit of disappointment. A disappointment when we consider what is possible if parallelism could solve the problems the presenter is referring to.

The problem comes down to the speed at which the processor can do a job. The operating systems are not necessarily able to manage the priorities all of the traffic coming in for processing. When the process, particularly a business process, needs to be manage in a defined sequence over time, and particularly based on interactions by the user. There is no way in which to ensure that the sequence is taken in the proper sequence. 

This affects us in People, Ideas & Objects because we have chosen to make Asynchronous Process Management one of the four cornerstones of our Technical Vision. When we consider how the Joint Interest Billing process is completed between several companies represented in the Joint Operating Committee, we see the value in solving this problem and enabling this technology. 

The operating and capital costs of a well, facility or plant is distributed to the working interest owners on a monthly basis. In the Partnership Accounting Module of the People, Ideas & Objects application we introduce a number of new variables to make the process more effective in defining and distributing the costs incurred by all of the partners. The ability to identify and apply these new costs, on top of the innovative way it handles all costs, revenues and royalties, needs the Parallelism being discussed in this video. Various people within the firm are measuring and capturing these costs for distribution. This firm may be scattered across many geographical regions and time zones. The ability to have the process managed in sequence may take several weeks of moving from desk to desk in the paper chasing world. In the virtual world it can and needs to move much quicker. Some times things happen that have the necessary dependents not fully complete, and that would be necessary in terms of mitigating the time of all the associated processes. However, there is also a need to ensure that the process is not over-ridding previously made decisions and data in the system. The process needs to be parked if a critical aspect is needed before processing. 

Once this process is completed within the firm, it is then necessary to follow a similar process for the firms in the Joint Operating Committee. When you consider the number of costs, properties and firms within the industry you can see the complexity of this process needs to be handled in the appropriate sequence. 

Where are we in terms of resolving this problem. I would suggest we are very close to having the means at our disposal of defining the software to follow the process in this Asynchronous manner. Steve Jobs of Apple has claimed that he has solved this problem and will release the capability in the next version of their Operating System, named Snow Leopard. Java makes the management of the process possible, but a bit cumbersome. Future changes are with this idea in mind and will achieve resolution of this critical area at some point in the very near future. Making the People, Ideas & Objects application modules able to make the possibilities real, please join me here. 

Technorati Tags: People's Development Vision Asynchronous Management

The end of the paper economy.

I have commented many times about the state of the current global economy. Why do I continue to discuss these economic difficulties? This is a necessary part of the development of this software. The ways and means of the global economy are being transformed to new and more effective ways of organization. Whether that is your belief or not is not something that I am challenging. I am trying to build support for the fact that these economic and organizational changes need to be accepted by every individual that works in the oil and gas industry. Milton Friedman has best captured the point in the following comment.

Now, you never have real changes unless you have a time of crisis. And when you have a time of crisis what happens depends on what ideas are floating around, and what ideas have been developed, and thought through, and are made effective. 

I'd like to think the ideas that I have formulated in the research and writing represented in this blog are some of those ideas that are just lying around. I perceive this time as the point of greatest opportunity for individuals. Our lives will be transformed, if we take this opportunity and run with it, we could achieve more then has been possible in many generations. 

There is going to be a sizable amount of pain as the "old" dies away and the new is formed by trial and error, but mostly frustration. But it will be worth it. What was conceived of as being of value in the past, - paper assets, stocks, bonds, pensions, real estate and retirements - are falling in value and will be not be adequate for our long term needs. What is of value and what can anyone in the oil and gas industry do to participate in this new economy and rebuild their lives?

I think the new economy is going to be based on "rights". Where access too, or ownership of, rights is the basis of how an individual earns a living. At least that is my theory and I'm sticking to it. The right to use the People, Ideas & Objects software is subject to license in which the rights to the ideas of using the Joint Operating Committee are available to everyone who chooses to make a living in oil and gas. These rights and the associated software are provided for free to those who provide services to the oil and gas producer, in their own service based offering. People, Ideas & Objects revenues are sourced by those that benefit from the sales of oil and gas. Oil and gas producers and governments which have the need for the people to manage and organize their assets and provide the most profitable means of oil and gas production. Creating an environment of dependency and mutual support between those that work in oil and gas, the producer companies and government agencies that collect royalties, and the software development process and application itself.

Please, join me here in this necessary and worthwhile cause.

Technorati Tags: People's Economics Change Energy Software