Strategies within a Solution Space

Bottom up strategies must always start with a green frog. It might not be immediately apparent how a green frog can appear in a Hilbert Solution Space when the dimensions are people. The trick is to realise the green frog is not literally a green frog but symbolic of a starting position in Hilbert Solution Space.

In finding the appropriate values for a set of emotions in the software discussed in the last chapter, the green frog was a set of random values. If you are searching Hilbert Solution Space for a solution in terms of people ( i.e, the most appropriate set of contacts), you would unlikely start by randomly choosing a handfull of people. You already know lots of people; you already have a number of contacts. These are your green frog: the point in Hilbert Solution Space from where you begin moving towards a better solution.

Jacie's green frog is the people in the company she works for. It's her starting position. She finds the position in the people dimensions of her Solution Space unsatisfactory. She has to employ a bottom up strategy to improve upon this position.

Randy talks of companies choosing contractors to build Web sites for them. The contractors are the companies' green frogs. It's their opening play in the game to find an appropriate and successful e-commerce solution. Randy suggests companies should have flexible Web designs so that they can move their Web site into a better position in Hilbert solution space. If the dimensions of the Solution Space are people this means expanding or changing the people who's views and experiences can make changes to the design.

If you have the mental agility to change the dimensions of a Hilbert Solution Space in your mind, you can see it in one paradigm as a space where the dimensions are components of an e-commerce system; you can then switch paradigms to see the dimensions of Hilbert Solution Space as people and then you can change the dimensions once again to see the dimensions as ideas.

Each of these paradigms would see the ideal e-commerce solution described in different ways. In the component dimensioned Hilbert Solution Space the solution would be described in terms of server configurations, bandwidth, Web site design, CGI scipts, data bases and all the various technological components that go into providing an e-commerce solution. In the Hilbert Solution Space where the dimensions are ideas, the solution would be described in terms of ideas and concepts. In the Hilbert Solution Space where the dimensions are people the solution would be describe as a list of people who contribute in some way to the design solution.

As it is virtually impossible to find an efficient strategy that will be able to keep track of the constantly changing technological possibilities available, a strategy to search with components as the dimensions is not very sensible. Similarly with the dimensions being ideas, there is no way to keep abreast of all the constantly changing ideas that are continually appearing. The leaves the only practical strategy to adopt is to define the solution as a place described by people.

This makes a lot of sense because components and ideas are basically information. Searching though Hilbert Solution Space for solutions described in these terms involves dealing with only with information: non intelligent dimensions. Information has to be sorted and filtered. A judgement has to be made on values and relevance. This is far too complex for algorithmic methods, even if though methods include software employing artificial intelligence.

There is no computer system better than a human brain for doing this kind of information sorting, so, it must be the best strategy to use people to filter, sort and give judgement on any information, so, this is why they are the preferred dimensions to have in a Solution Space for e-business and e-commerce. They are the ultimate in effective components in any intelligent system that involves decisions in a complex dynamic environment. After all, this is what human brains have evolved to do.

A Hilbert Solution Space with people has intelligent dimensions where you can be dealing not just with information but with information that is filtered and selected. This greatly reduces the amout of information that it is necessary to have to deal with in the searching process. In other words, it is more efficient to think in terms of people than technology or ideas and concepts because you are dealing with knowledge rather than information.