[Its.an.education.project] From Piaget

[Sameer Verma]

Walter Bender wrote:
>> Several kinds of clarity are critical. I have a tendency to favor
>> clarity of means. I find it easier to derive purpose from means than
>> means from purpose.
>>     
>
> There is a classic business school matrix where you have two axes:
> goals and means. The most efficiency comes from clear goals and
> open-ended means. The least efficiency comes from open-ended goals and
> proscribed means.
>
> -walter
>   

This is similar to the Mission and Core Competencies Matrix.
http://www.cipher-sys.com/HofHelp/Mcc/mcc_matrixhelpfile.htm (needs Java
for full navigation, but can be viewed without it).

Least efficient quadrant is a poor fit with the mission and a poor fit
with core competencies. Of course, to analyze anything within the MCC
matrix, one needs to know what the mission is and where the core
competencies of a firm or unit stand, and that is usually the hard part.

Another way to look at it is that "Purpose from means" is a supply-side
process, while "Means for purpose" is on the demand side. "Purpose from
means" is also somewhat akin to "If we build it they will come".

Given all the signal and noise on all these mailing lists, it would help
to focus on vision, mission, goals, etc. both for OLPC and for Sugarlabs
in order to improve the Signal-to-Noise ratio; more signal, less noise.

cheers,
Sameer

-- 
Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Information Systems
San Francisco State University
San Francisco CA 94132 USA
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://opensource.sfsu.edu/