Responding to Al Selvin who wished more elaboration on a question of mine
"Open-endedness" when applied to software indicates both the feeling and
the actual opportunity to build anything You want using a particular
software platform. Non-linear network structures such as hypertext, along
with an effective tool can provide this, giving also a strong sense of
freedom, that any structure can be created. (Note, I am not talking about
extensibility... which extends the tool or platform itself, but rather the
object created.... in particular I am working with dynamic systems
modelling tools).
On the other hand, hierarchy is used a lot in software in order to provide
structure which can order and level objects in a manner which enables
useful abstractions, and a sense of everything in its place. In the
popular language C++ for example, hierarchy is used both for building
software out of other sofware objects, and in order to build complex
objects from simpler, more generic objects in the process called
inheritance. Both uses give an effective capability for abstraction.
Structured programming in the 70's with strict hierarchical scoping of
program components, enabled more reliable, less error-prone software to be
created...... generally avoiding what was called "spaghetti code".
Networks can evolve in a spaghetti-like manner.
What I was posing in the LO and management realm is how do we organize
ourselves so that the effective benefits of both the open-ended network
realm (e.g. for emergent teams and adaptation) and the
mangement-of-complexity capability of hierarchies can co-exist?
-- Dr. Doug Seeley 100433.133@compuserve.com "Are there any places or times where networks do not exist?"