Component-Based Business - Recommended Reading

Full References

writer

details

Christopher Alexander

pioneer of design patterns and a novel approach to planning

Christopher Alexander and associates, A Pattern Language. Oxford University Press 1977.

Christopher Alexander and different associates, A New Theory of Urban Design. Oxford University Press 1987.

I’m also eagerly awaiting the publication of his next book, The Nature of Order.

Gregory Bateson

master of paradox

Mary Catherine Bateson (daughter of Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead) has written some excellent stuff in her own right, as well as editing her father's material.

Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology by Gregory Bateson, Mary Catherine Bateson

Mind and Nature is good, but seems to be unavailable at present. Other books to look out for are Angels Fear and Further Steps.

Hylton Boothroyd

wonderful little book on systems change unfortunately now hard to find

Hylton Boothroyd, Articulate Intervention. Taylor & Francis, 1978.

Albert Borgmann

deep and unusual insights into technology

Albert Borgmann, Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life. Chicago University Press 1984.

Stewart Brand

change how you think about architecture

Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built. Viking 1994.

In this detailed and well-illustrated book, Brand shows how buildings adapt to changing requirements over long periods. The book inspired a 6-part TV series by the BBC. (Comments critical of the architect Lord Rogers have been removed from the British edition. Despite this, Brand himself, in a comment on the Amazon.co.uk website, recommends the British edition.)

Douglas Flemons

a good study of articulation, from a follower of Bateson

Douglas Flemons, Completing Distinctions Shambala, Boston & London, 1991.

Larry Hirschhorn

change how you think about organizations and boundaries

Larry Hirschhorn, The Workplace Within. MIT Press, 1988.

Kevin Kelly

change how you think about systems and control

Kevin Kelly, Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World. 1994

Out of Control is a wide-ranging and excellently researched compendium of large complex systems. Kelly has found interesting parallels between a variety of disciplines, from biology to computer science, and from mathematics to government. Kelly ends with what he calls The Nine Laws of God - nine principles which he claims to find in the design or growth of all large complex systems, both "natural" and "artificial".

Kevin Kelly, New Rules for the New Economy: 10 Ways the Network Economy is Changing Everything(or perhaps ) 10 Radical Strategies for a Connected World 1998

A systematic analysis of the strategies for successful business in the new world. This is the open, distributed, connected, chaotic world he described in his previous book, Out of Control.

New Rules is a much thinner volume than Out of Control. It explores some of the business paradoxes of the Internet, and turning the Nine Laws of God into a more practical set of rules-of-thumb for being successful in a networked world. Think of it as a pattern language for e-business.

Bruno Latour

places science and technology into their social context

Bruno Latour, Science in Action. Harvard University Press 1987.

Also worth reading is Bruno Latour. Aramis or The Love of Technology. Translated by Catherine Porter. Harvard University Press, 1996.

Peter Marris

good insights on social change

Peter Marris, The Politics of Uncertainty (Routledge, 1996). Especially Chapter 7.

Humberto Maturana & Francisco Varela

important thinkers about systems in biology with much broader relevance

H. Maturana and Francisco Varela, The Tree of Knowledge Shambala 1992. Provides a readable discussion of the notion of closure in biology. A more theoretical presentation of their ideas can be found in H. Maturana & F. Varela, Autopoiesis and Cognition: The realization of the living. D. Reidel, 1980. See also Francisco Varela Principles of Biological Autonomy New York: Elsevier Science Publishers, 1979.

Mercer Management Consulting

Slywotzky and his chums have produced some outstanding works of the airport bookstall genre

Adrian Slywotzky and associates, Profit Patterns: 30 Ways to Anticipate and Profit from Strategic Forces Reshaping Your Business. John Wiley 1999.

David Bovet & Joe Martha, Value Nets: Breaking the Supply Chain to Unlock Hidden Profits. John Wiley, 2000.

Gareth Morgan

brilliant survey of organizations from multiple perspectives

Gareth Morgan, Images of Organization. Sage 1986. There are various editions available, including shortened versions. I recommend the full-length paperback version.

Peter Rowe

an excellent survey on design matters

Peter Rowe, Design Thinking. MIT Press 1987.

Carl Shapiro & Hal Varian

Carl Shapiro & Hal Varian, Information Rules: A strategic guide to the network economy (Harvard Business School, 1998)

Richard Veryard

Component-Based Business: Plug and Play. Springer, 2001

Sir Geoffrey Vickers

a wise and reflective man of affairs who had a profound influence on systems thinking and practice

Art of Judgment
Human Systems are Different
The Vickers Papers

all currently out of print

Karl Weick

change how you think about organizations and change

His 1982 paper on "The Management of Change among Loosely Coupled Elements" has now been reprinted in a new collection of his papers.

Karl Weick, Making Sense of the Organization. Basil Blackwell, 2001.

Useful Collections

work

details

Paul S. Goodman and associates, Change in Organizations. Jossey-Bass 1984.

Especially recommended are the contributions by Chris Argyris, Kenwyn Smith and Karl Weick.

Grahame Thompson et al (eds), Markets, Hierarchies and Networks: The Coordination of Social Life (Sage 1991)

Read chapters 14-16 and 20-24.

Useful Websites

name

details

BT Technical Journal

Some excellent material has been coming out of BT Labs - and often with a clearer enterprise focus than their rivals at Bell Labs. Especially recommended is the special issue on the Emerging Enterprise, Vol 17 No 4 (October 1999).

Information Economy

The Economics of the Internet, Information Goods, Intellectual Property and Related Issues. Compiled by Hal R. Varian (author of Information Rules).

Ontology.Org

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Christopher Alexander - pioneer of design patterns and a novel approach to planning	Gregory Bateson - master of paradox	Hylton Boothroyd - wonderful little book on systems change unfortunately now hard to find	Albert Borgmann - deep and unusual insights into technology
Stewart Brand - change how you think about architecture	Larry Hirschhorn - change how you think about organizations and boundaries	Kevin Kelly - change how you think about systems and control	Bruno Latour - places science and technology into their social context
Humberto Maturana & Francisco Varela - important thinkers about systems in biology with much broader relevance	Gareth Morgan - brilliant survey of organizations from multiple perspectives	Sir Geoffrey Vickers - a wise and reflective man of affairs who had a profound influence on systems thinking and practice	Karl Weick - change how you think about organizations and change

writer	details
Christopher Alexander pioneer of design patterns and a novel approach to planning	Christopher Alexander and associates, A Pattern Language. Oxford University Press 1977. Christopher Alexander and different associates, A New Theory of Urban Design. Oxford University Press 1987. I’m also eagerly awaiting the publication of his next book, The Nature of Order.
Gregory Bateson master of paradox Mary Catherine Bateson (daughter of Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead) has written some excellent stuff in her own right, as well as editing her father's material.	Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology by Gregory Bateson, Mary Catherine Bateson Mind and Nature is good, but seems to be unavailable at present. Other books to look out for are Angels Fear and Further Steps.
Hylton Boothroyd wonderful little book on systems change unfortunately now hard to find	Hylton Boothroyd, Articulate Intervention. Taylor & Francis, 1978.
Albert Borgmann deep and unusual insights into technology	Albert Borgmann, Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life. Chicago University Press 1984.
Stewart Brand change how you think about architecture	Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built. Viking 1994. In this detailed and well-illustrated book, Brand shows how buildings adapt to changing requirements over long periods. The book inspired a 6-part TV series by the BBC. (Comments critical of the architect Lord Rogers have been removed from the British edition. Despite this, Brand himself, in a comment on the Amazon.co.uk website, recommends the British edition.)
Douglas Flemons a good study of articulation, from a follower of Bateson	Douglas Flemons, Completing Distinctions Shambala, Boston & London, 1991.
Larry Hirschhorn change how you think about organizations and boundaries	Larry Hirschhorn, The Workplace Within. MIT Press, 1988.
Kevin Kelly change how you think about systems and control	Kevin Kelly, Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World. 1994 Out of Control is a wide-ranging and excellently researched compendium of large complex systems. Kelly has found interesting parallels between a variety of disciplines, from biology to computer science, and from mathematics to government. Kelly ends with what he calls The Nine Laws of God - nine principles which he claims to find in the design or growth of all large complex systems, both "natural" and "artificial". Kevin Kelly, New Rules for the New Economy: 10 Ways the Network Economy is Changing Everything(or perhaps ) 10 Radical Strategies for a Connected World 1998 A systematic analysis of the strategies for successful business in the new world. This is the open, distributed, connected, chaotic world he described in his previous book, Out of Control. New Rules is a much thinner volume than Out of Control. It explores some of the business paradoxes of the Internet, and turning the Nine Laws of God into a more practical set of rules-of-thumb for being successful in a networked world. Think of it as a pattern language for e-business.
Bruno Latour places science and technology into their social context	Bruno Latour, Science in Action. Harvard University Press 1987. Also worth reading is Bruno Latour. Aramis or The Love of Technology. Translated by Catherine Porter. Harvard University Press, 1996.
Peter Marris good insights on social change	Peter Marris, The Politics of Uncertainty (Routledge, 1996). Especially Chapter 7.
Humberto Maturana & Francisco Varela important thinkers about systems in biology with much broader relevance	H. Maturana and Francisco Varela, The Tree of Knowledge Shambala 1992. Provides a readable discussion of the notion of closure in biology. A more theoretical presentation of their ideas can be found in H. Maturana & F. Varela, Autopoiesis and Cognition: The realization of the living. D. Reidel, 1980. See also Francisco Varela Principles of Biological Autonomy New York: Elsevier Science Publishers, 1979.
Mercer Management Consulting Slywotzky and his chums have produced some outstanding works of the airport bookstall genre	Adrian Slywotzky and associates, Profit Patterns: 30 Ways to Anticipate and Profit from Strategic Forces Reshaping Your Business. John Wiley 1999. David Bovet & Joe Martha, Value Nets: Breaking the Supply Chain to Unlock Hidden Profits. John Wiley, 2000.
Gareth Morgan brilliant survey of organizations from multiple perspectives	Gareth Morgan, Images of Organization. Sage 1986. There are various editions available, including shortened versions. I recommend the full-length paperback version.
Peter Rowe an excellent survey on design matters	Peter Rowe, Design Thinking. MIT Press 1987.
Carl Shapiro & Hal Varian	Carl Shapiro & Hal Varian, Information Rules: A strategic guide to the network economy (Harvard Business School, 1998)
Richard Veryard	Component-Based Business: Plug and Play. Springer, 2001
Sir Geoffrey Vickers a wise and reflective man of affairs who had a profound influence on systems thinking and practice	Art of Judgment Human Systems are Different The Vickers Papers all currently out of print
Karl Weick change how you think about organizations and change	His 1982 paper on "The Management of Change among Loosely Coupled Elements" has now been reprinted in a new collection of his papers. Karl Weick, Making Sense of the Organization. Basil Blackwell, 2001.

recommended reading

Full References

Useful Collections

Useful Websites