Citizen Sector

Architecture has advanced at a blistering pace as technology has provided the ability to model and prototype with increasing accuracy and creativity. As if architects are the explorers of evolving physical space paralleling information modelers of digital space. The constraints faced by architects who design for human environments bear some similarities to those attempting to design management systems for the interactive environment. One distinct similarity tying management, architecture, and technology together is the attention being paid to modularity or units.

Architects like Charles A. Simko in a 2006 masters thesis, focused on urban theoretical architecture and fractals and what the thesis refers to as "urban cells." These cells contain the necessary ingredients for physical ecosystems. In technology, Buglabs is creating products with programmable modules that when used in concert create devices such as GPS, digital cameras, and video cameras. These pieces are not pre-programmed but contain the infrastructure to create digital ecosystems. I will suggest that designing management systems in a similar fashion may create a more flexible platform for building of multiple "modules" suited for different purposes.

Putting together a business as a platform may speak more to the way the pieces interact than to the what the core pieces are. While efficiency driven businesses face almost certain specialization of skills, those built on knowledge and creativity have more to gain be re-examining their organizational design. Ideas of creating "webs of accountability," or interdependent modules.