The Historical View circa 1958
The notion of intelligence is… “the ability to apprehend the interrelationships of presented facts in such a way as to guide action towards a desired goal.”
- Hans Peter Luhn, IBM Journal, October 1958
The above quote is generally credited with coining the term Business Intelligence (B.I.). Luhn’s vision was ambitious for his time and it’s still ambitious today. How much of the following article do you find relevant right NOW with respect to your business reporting challenges?
The following are direct quotes from the IBM Journal Article, “A Business Intelligence System” published 1958 with my commentary added:
Information is now being generated and utilized at an ever-increasing rate because of the accelerated pace and scope of human activities and the steady rise in the average level of education. At the same time the growth of organizations and increased specialization and divisionalization have created new barriers to the flow of information. There is also a growing need for more prompt decisions at levels of responsibility far below those customary in the past. Undoubtedly the most formidable communications problem is the sheer bulk of information that has to be dealt with. In view of the present growth trends, automation appears to offer the most efficient methods for retrieval and dissemination of this information.
With respect to the volumes of data being created in 1958, I think we can safely say, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Keep in mind that 1958 was really the primordial soup of computing and information management. At that time, the Integrated Circuit had just been developed which would pave the way for development of computing as we know it today. Looking back on IT in 1958, I’m thinking it consisted of a “series of tubes”.
Luhn continues:
Ideally, an automatic system is needed which can accept information in its original form, disseminate the data promptly to the proper places and furnish information on demand.
So, in 1958, the concept of “on-demand” is also christened. A blog I follow called, Only Dead Fish, by Neil Perkins references the Greek term, Kairos, recently when discussing the importance of context. Kairos refers to, “the right or opportune moment” or “the supreme moment”. I think this is the best way to think about the basic need/want underpinning the concept of on-demand. I think this is how Luhn was thinking about it too:
One of the most crucial problems in communication is that of channeling a given item of information to those who need to know it. Present methods of accomplishing this are inadequate and the general practice is to disseminate information rather broadly to be on the safe side. Since this method tends to swamp the recipients with paper, the probability of not communicating at all becomes great.
Of course, we have come to know this “general swamping” in terms of email as opposed to paper, but it’s interesting that the problem remains the same. How often are you required to spam the inboxes of your co-workers with reams of reports that may or may not be relevant to what they are currently thinking about?
Luhn actually advocates the creation of Profiles that would reflect the person’s sphere of interest! This guy was truly visionary! He goes on to discuss what he describes as “the Library problem” referring to the process by which users retrieve information from the system. I really like this term and think we should resurrect it here and now! Call me, The Librarian!
These Librarians that Luhn describes will become the guys who are your Systems Administrators and Database Administrators today. In Luhn’s world, these are the guys who would eliminate the need to train the end users of the information in navigating the complexities of the system. Although, later he does offer a tantalizing glimpse into an ever greater vision of technological advancement:
Although the service of a librarian is considered a convenience to the action point, in certain cases, means may be provided at the action-point location to permit direct access to the system. This would be justified where many of the inquiries concern lookup-type retrieval of data.
Otherwise, the system he envisions does actually begin to characterize what’s become the classic IT problem when it comes to report generation. That process being:
1. Information user requests a report from IT
2. IT evaluates the request and, time permitting, creates the report for the user
3. User receives the report and discovers that it doesn’t quite fit the need
4. A new request goes to IT
5. Repeat (ad nauseum)
In 1958 though, this was a revolutionary breakthrough in organizational management! Perhaps it’s time to look for the next breakthrough, after all, it’s been 50 years. The article goes on to detail the process of capturing and organizing information including the EVENTUAL DESTRUCTION of the data! Microfilm, magnetic tape, punchcards, these are the modes of storage being considered. At the same time, the functional technology being envisioned is virtually StarTrekkian:
The magnetic tape record is now introduced into the auto-abstracting and encoding device. This device submits the document to a statistical analysis based on the physical properties of the text, and data are derived on word frequency and distribution.
A relative value of sentence significance is then established by a formula which reflects the number of significant words contained in a sentence and the proximity of these words to each other within this sentence. Several sentences which rank highest in value of significance are then extracted from the text to constitute the auto-abstract.
Whoops, I think we may have also just inadvertently discovered the origin of vaporware. The article does admit that the functionality being described is only a vision and that “the question arises as to how far away such systems may be from realization”. The fact is that some of what has been envisioned has only recently been achieved. Think about tagging, creating profiles, digital indexing, and keyword searches. What makes me think this article figures prominently in the lives of both Larry Page and Sergey Brin?
Dissemination of the new information occurs based on the user-generated profiles. This feature is, again, only recently been substantively achieved. The means of dissemination according to the article? The use of personal printers! The more things change, the more they stay the same. I still know companies where the primary means of report distribution is the printed page. I encourage you to print out page 4 of this article and overlay the copy onto your organization’s business process information flowchart. Similarities?
Okay. Just a few more quotes here to round things off, but you can peruse the embedded document for the full story:
In the process of transacting business it is often desired to determine who concerns himself with a given subject. The usual type of question asked is: “Who does or knows a certain thing?” A function of the Business Intelligence System is to answer questions of this type.
Perhaps the techniques which ultimately find greatest use will bear little resemblance to those now visualized, but some form of automation will ultimately provide an effective answer to business intelligence problems.
Indeed.
Enjoy.
