About Doug McDavid

Doug McDavid is an Enterprise Architect, retired from IBM in 2009. He now maintains a web presence at enterprisology.com.

daviding: “Open source licenses cover derivative works. Machine learnin…” July 5, 2021
Open source licenses cover derivative works. Machine learning based on pre-existing work should carry the downstream license. That is the responsibility of the human being initiating the machine learning algorithm, and you can't blame the machine. https://twitter.com/kellabyte/status/1411449622288076801 > I heard GitHub is training their co-pilot with other peoples copyrighted source code thus allowing copyrighted source […]
daviding: “For those of us who take freedom of movement for granted, #H…” May 2, 2021
For those of us who take freedom of movement for granted, #HassanAlKontar writes about acceptance into Canada.> only a few countries – including Germany, New Zealand and Canada – actually help people escape their misery and resume their lives. Others, especially Australia, are jailing, deporting and locking up asylum seekers. Australia signed the UN refugee […]
daviding: “Those who are more nostalgic about the days of shareware can…” January 22, 2021
Those who are more nostalgic about the days of shareware can look to the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/tucows
daviding: “For those who remember the rushing sound of a 2400bps modem …” January 22, 2021
For those who remember the rushing sound of a 2400bps modem connecting over an analog telephone line, the old BBS download sites have been obsoleted. https://www.engadget.com/tucows-downloads-has-finally-been-shut-down-103036388.html
daviding: “Did the board of MEC understand how a cooperative really wor…” January 21, 2021
Did the board of MEC understand how a cooperative really works? #MaxFawcett suggests that they forgot. https://thewalrus.ca/what-we-can-learn-from-the-fall-of-mec/

Goal, objective, ideal, pursuits (Ackoff & Emery, 1972)
While Ackoff’s definitions of goals, objectives and ideals have been republished (and rewritten) multiple times, the 1972 definitions were derived from his original dissertation work. Accordingly, in addition to the human-readable definitions, some mathematical notation is introduced. — begin paste — OUTCOMES 2.30. End (an immediate intended outcome) of a subject A in a particular […]
Pure Inquiring Systems: Antiteleology | The Design of Inquiring Systems | C. West Churchman | 1971
The fifth way of knowing, as described by West Churchman, is a Singerian inquiring system. (This fifth way of knowing is more colloquially called Unbounded Systems Thinking in Mitroff and Linstone (1993)). The book On Purposeful Systems (Ackoff and Emery, 1972) was derived by Ackoff’s dissertation that was controversially coauthored with West Churchman. Purpose can […]
Process-Function Ecology, Wicked Problems, Ecological Evolution | Vasishth | Spanda J | 2015
Understanding Process-Function Ecology by Ashwani Vasishth leads to luminaries in the systems sciences, including C. West Churchman, Eugene P. Odum and Timothy F.H. Allen.
The Innovation Delusion | Lee Vinsel, Andrew L. Russell | 2020
As an irony, the 2020 book, The Innovation Delusion by #LeeVinsel @STS_News + #AndrewLRussell @RussellProf shouldn’t be seen as an innovation, but an encouragement to join @The_Maintainers where an ongoing thought network can continue. The subtitle “How Our Obsession with the New has Disrupted the Work That Matters Most” recognizes actual innovation, as distinct from […]
Republishing on Facebook as “good for the world” or “bad for the world” (NY Times, 2020/11/24)
An online social network reproduces content partially based on algorithms, and partially based on the judgements made by human beings. Either may be viewed as positive or negative. > The trade-offs came into focus this month [November 2020], when Facebook engineers and data scientists posted the results of a series of experiments called “P(Bad for […]
1969, 1981 Emery, System Thinking: Selected Readings
Social Systems Science graduate students in 1970s-1980s with #RussellAckoff, #EricTrist + #HasanOzbehkhan at U. Pennsylvania Wharton School were assigned the Penguin paperback #SystemsThinking reader edited by #FredEEmery, with updated editions evolving contents.

2021/08 Moments August 2021
Easing into a more regular schedule, enjoying seasonable summer afternoons, with extra couples time on the weekends.
2021/07 Moments July 2021
Summer in the city with temperate weather, without the usual crowd scenes for summer festivals.
2021/06 Moments June 2021
Early summer weather, with a city gradually emerging from pandemic shutdown orders given by the Province of Ontario.
2021/05 Moments May 2012
Brighter days of spring, with slight dips in temperature to remind us our four-seasons climate.
2021/04 Moments April 2021
Short bike rides around town, in variable spring weather under pandemic stay-at-home orders,
2021/03 Moments March 2021
Days brightening and temperatures above freezing, optimism with vaccinations against the pandemic.

2021/02/02 To Understand This Era, You Need to Think in Systems | Zeynep Tufekci with Ezra Klein | New York Times
In conversation, @zeynep with @ezraklein reveal authentic #SystemsThinking in (i) appreciating that “science” is constructed by human collectives, (ii) the west orients towards individual outcomes rather than population levels; and (iii) there’s an over-emphasis on problems of the moment, and…Read more ›
2019/04/09 Art as a discipline of inquiry | Tim Ingold (web video)
In the question-answer period after the lecture, #TimIngold proposes art as a discipline of inquiry, rather than ethnography. This refers to his thinking On Human Correspondence. — begin paste — [75m26s question] I am curious to know what art, or…Read more ›
2019/10/16 | “Bubbles, Golden Ages, and Tech Revolutions” | Carlota Perez
How might our society show value for the long term, over the short term? Could we think about taxation over time, asks @carlotaprzperez in an interview: 92% for 1 day; 80% within 1 month; 50%-60% tax for 1 year; zero tax for 10 years.Read more ›
2020/07/13 “Making Growing Thinking” |Tim Ingold (web video)
For the @ArchFoundation, #TimIngold distinguishes outcome-oriented making from process-oriented growing, revisiting #MartinHeidegger “Building Dwelling Thinking”. Organisms are made; artefacts grow. The distinction seems obvious, until you stop to ask what assumptions it contains, about the inside and outside of things…Read more ›
2020/04/09 “Can Ecological Economics Shape a Shock-Resistant Planet” | Herman Daly (web video)
In web conference, #HermanDaly says #EcologicalEconomics used to get attacked from the right, now it's from the left. Panel @revkin @jon_d_erickson @ktkish @sophiesanniti #TimCrowshaw #KatieHorner livestreamed #sustainwhat .Read more ›
2018/11/19 Niall Ferguson | “Networks and Power” |Long Now (web video + audio)
Complementing the idea of a @longnow , @nfergus provokes the challenge of a #shortthen as the online social media platforms distract the larger perspectives on history.Read more ›

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