Infrastructure creation takes LOTS of folk

There's a great belief on the part of journalists and analysts that "the great man theory of evolution" is true.  Enough that the books about 'treat companies' such as IBM, Intel, Cisco, Boeing, and HP, tend to focus on the leadership (see the latest re Zuckerberg).  And, in many respects, they are correct.

The recent movie, Lincoln, or the insightful Saving Mr. Banks, certainly give us perspective that that ineluctable quality of bold leadership matters.

But it is also true that minions are valuable, and very often they are key.  Take Intel for example.  Intel's 'corporate history' is mostly told through stories about its founders, Gordon Moore and Bob Noyce, and its energetic forceful leader Andy Grove.   Once in a while, the invention of the microcomputer by Ted Hoff and some others is told parenthetically.

The really big story usually told (Grive himself popularized this version) is that Intel (read Intel leadership) missed the significance of the micro processor, and when the Japanese onslaught came on strong in 1985 and created a crisis, Grove was smart engouh and bold enough to talk Gordon into switching horses, so to speak.

What this story fails to outline clearly is that the handwriting had been on the wall at Intel for seven years, and legions of folk soldiered on without top management support -- in fact, with opprobrium actually -- to have the micro 'ready' for its time in the sun.   Bill Davidow, Phil Kaufman, Dave House (no relation to me, although we joke that he's my older brother), Stirling Hou and many many others endured, and after a mere fifteen years, they were 'heard'.  But you never see that story in print, do you?

The paper by the Internet Society mentioned in the two previous posts does a good job of outlining the fact that it wasn't just Al Gore who invented the Internet, but also the fact that it wasn't just Cerf, Kahn and a few cohorts either.  It was myriads of folk, at lots of places.

The key thing was the conceptual design of the Internet was handled somewhat differently--it actually was conceived to be 'inclusive' of lots of uncoordinated efforts, purposely.  When's the last time you heard of that as a major design principle?