A Case Study in Expeditionary Community Development
/Gary E. Riccio, Ph.D.
While advances in physics are propelling us beyond Moore’s law, the most stunning transformations in technology development arguably are occurring in the human dimension. It is time to accelerate the social dimension of innovation by harnessing communities that are as selective as they are open, that are as committed and trustworthy as they are flexible and trusting. Science provides a model for intentional communities to coalesce around a shared intensity of purpose and to make systematic progress both within and across ventures. This paper presents a collective biography of the longitudinal development of people and systems across disparate programs of R&D in which changing constellations of outside technical experts and indigenous operational experts developed each other as much as the systems that brought them together.