Читать книгу Digital Disciplines - Wiersema Fred - Страница 7

On January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall, a carpenter from New Jersey, was helping to build a lumber mill on the American River near Sacramento when he noticed a twinkle in the water. It was the gold nugget that launched the Gold Rush, which, in turn, led to a population explosion and rapid statehood for California as fortune hunters and their suppliers – selling picks, shovels, food, libations, and more – descended on the territory from around the globe. The nonnative population of California grew from under 1,000 at the time of Marshall's discovery to over 100,000 by the end of the next year, thanks to the influx of Forty-Niners – mostly men who left their families behind to find riches. Even when the Gold Rush ended, much of the population remained, and so did a need for business associates, families, and friends to communicate with each other across the emerging nation.

To help meet this need, the Pony Express was launched on April 3, 1860. It could deliver letters and small packages between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento in only 10 days, a breakthrough for that era. The Pony Express accomplished this feat by using a cleverly engineered system of over 150 stations, hundreds of specially selected horses, lightweight riders, specially designed lightweight saddles, and clever “hacks” such as a horn to alert an upcoming station to ready the next horse. The stations were spaced about 10 miles apart, the distance a horse could go at top speed before tiring. In what was a forerunner to today's packet-switched networks such as the Internet, a lightweight pouch containing the mail was handed off from rider to rider, each rider exchanging horses several times before being replaced himself.

On October 24, 1861 – a year and a half after the Pony Express began deliveries – the first transcontinental telegraph network was completed, and in less than 48 hours the Pony Express ceased operations. Thus was a miracle of operational excellence supplanted by early information technology (IT) and what might be called information excellence. It foreshadowed the critical need to exploit IT – or be trampled and left in the dust.