SPRING 2011

78 THE DISTRIBUTOR’S LINK
Larry Kilham
Larry Kilham is a speaker and consultant specializing in new product
development for high tech companies. He is the author of “MegaMinds: How to
Create and Invent in the Age of Google,” now available on Amazon Kindle.
Larry and his family are successful inventors and entrepreneurs with many
patents and awards. He has a master’s degree from MIT and has founded
three companies. To find out more about Larry’s speaking and consulting,
please contact him by email at lkilham@gmail.com or by phone at
505-310-7600.
TEAMS, COLLECTIVES & THE CLOUDS: TURNING
AN IDEA INTO TEAMWORK VIA TECHNOLOGY
“The open society, the unrestricted access to
knowledge, the unplanned and uninhibited association
of men for its furtherance--these are what may make a
vast, complex, ever growing, ever changing, ever more
specialized and expert technological world, nevertheless
a world of human community.” - J. Robert Oppenheimer
The 50's and 60's was a carefree time bridging the
national self-confidence after World War II with the hope
coming out of the labs--big cars with tail fins,
"Atoms for Peace," miracle drugs,
electronics. The world at that time
was ready for econometric-based
economic theory but not major
complexity.
World War II produced a
host of challenges and
eventually products that
involved complexity on a scale
unimaginable in the inventive times of the
19th century. The atomic bomb immediately
comes to mind, but there were plenty of other big
challenges. Solving these problems has lead to big team
research.
Creative Teams Led by a Charismatic
Technical Leader
The ideas teams work on must start with seeds
planted by inventors. These ideas turn into green shoots
if they’re encouraged to grow by a team. If success
continues, management and investors take control,
hoping for a big harvest.
While the initial idea or discovery of a product could have
been done by one man or woman, completely characterizing
the invention, analyzing a practical version as a system, and
developing testing and manufacturing methods inevitably
and quickly lead to the formation of a team.
The key part of a team is having a collection of people
working on the problem, starting with a charismatic
scientific leader such as J. Robert Oppenheimer. He
would have a prestigious board that could include a
university president, scientists, industrialists,
academics and military representatives. Staffing was
often ad-hoc with scientists and engineers grabbed from
almost anywhere handy. Shirtsleeves experimentation
always was important.
The ideas teams work
on must start with seeds
planted by inventors. These
ideas turn into green shoots
if they’re encouraged to
grow by a team.
The Emergence of Connected
Intelligence via the Web
The emergence of the Internet
made physical location a
much more flexible option for
many participants. A leading
scientist might work out of his
home office in the Great
Mountains
Smokey
teleconferencing daily to his labs in
San Diego and Cambridge.
The restraints of working on the same floor or in the
same building can be relieved by Wikis (common interest
Internet discussion groups). Web-based development
collaboratives, mobile phone hookups and the like are
all attempts to foster group creativity and informal
communications.
It is important to note that all communications media
can be used. It’s no longer just emails, although they are
still important. Video conferencing is simple and low
cost. Laboratory experiments can be read and controlled
from anywhere. But, perhaps most importantly, the
remote scientist can access all the world’s libraries
through the computer clouds using Google and other
search engines.
All of this began inauspiciously when Larry Page and
Sergey Brin met as students at Stanford in 1995. Brin
was assigned to show Page around campus. In 1996
please turn to page 181