Valdis Krebs has just started his “Star” stint on AOK (Association of Knowledge Work). (You may have to sign up for AOK if you are not a member already.) He is collecting stories of how networking practices (or lack thereof) reveal whether companies (organizations, the US Intelligence agency) are smart or stupid. I expect it will be a rich two weeks of reading.

I’ve already contributed my thoughts about a terrific network practice from the late but still lamented Digital Equipment Corporation. I’ve written about the collaboration aspects in a couple of articles. And there are new memories, aspects of how things worked at Digital that I had not thought about for a long time. Program Offices, for one, were a staple of life at Digital. Chaos brewing in a new technology area? Lots of groups doing independent investigations? Something emerging? A program office was a structured attractor that brought diverse perspectives, talents, and knowledge together and stablized frameworks for collaboration.

Of course there is a story about how and why Digital failed, and that is probably some kind of network story as well. Later.