The Preliminary Specification Part CXL (K&L Part VIII)
We now start our third pass through the Knowledge & Learning module. This will provide a focus on Professor Giovanni Dosi’s 1988 paper “Sources, Procedures and Microeconomic Effects of Innovation”. We also metaphorically move from the “practice field” of the Research & Capabilities module to “game day” with our football analogy in this the Knowledge & Learning module. In reviewing what has been written so far in the Preliminary Specification I was interested in this comment. The domain of the Joint Operating Committee is; “the ability to innovate will not only permit the oil and gas producer to find more oil and gas, increase the production of oil and gas from the field, but will also provide innovative ways in which to deploy its capital and reduce its costs.” Which seems to capture the point of the exercise.
What we have in the Knowledge & Learning module is three interfaces developed so far. The first is the “Capabilities Interface” which is the published version of each of the producer firms capabilities that are part of the Joint Operating Committee. These interfaces are sorted based on geological zone, and other criteria, and published based on those criteria. Therefore each Joint Operating Committee receives access to the capabilities that are pertinent to that JOC from each producer. There is also a “Wiki Styled Information Repository” that includes the policies, procedures, operational and management information for the property. This area would also include what is commonly referred to as the well file in terms of the information that is contained with in it. Lastly there is the “Lessons Learned” interface where the people who work within the JOC record the information on the operations that did not follow the expected outcomes.
What we have learned from Professor Giovanni Dosi is comprehensive in terms of innovation. To capture these elements of innovation within the modules of the People, Ideas & Objects Preliminary Specification builds real value for the innovative oil and gas producers. To briefly summarize some of what we learned, primarily in the Research & Capabilities module, which is directly pertinent to the Knowledge & Learning module, is as follows.
Lets review the three key factors of innovation Professor Dosi notes:
The search, development and adoption of new processes and products in market economies are the outcome of the interaction between:
- Capabilities and stimuli generated with each firm and within the industry of which they complete.
and
- Broader causes external to the individual industries, such as the state of science in different branches, the facilities for the communication of knowledge, the supply of technical capabilities, skills, engineers etc.
Additional issues include the conditions controlling occupational and geographical mobility and or consumer promptness / resistance to change, market conditions, financial facilities and capabilities and the criteria used to allocate funds. Microeconomic trends in the effects on changes in relative prices of inputs and outputs, including public policy. (regulation, tax codes, patent and trademark laws and public procurement.)
Recall that these key factors are being funneled through the Research & Capabilities “Research Budget Allocation Interface” and “Capabilities Interface”. It is there that the greater issues of the science, the capabilities, microeconomic trends and public policy can be centralized and dealt with on behalf of all of the Joint Operating Committees that the producer may have an interest in. To expect that each individual JOC would deal with these greater issues would be unproductive and disorganized. By dealing with these points, and codifying them in the Capabilities Interface the producer firm is publishing the appropriate information to the JOC at the appropriate time. Then the JOC has to only deal with the issues and opportunities of the property and none of the noise that may or may not be arguing for attention.
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.