My 30+ year career has been dedicated to the creation and commercialization of new information technology products and services, several of which have forever changed the way we live and work. I learned the foundation of success in such endeavors is grounded in the ability to bring together individuals with different perspectives and combine their collective individual knowledge into something more than any one individual could have done on their own.

Based on my experience, the biggest difference between success and failure in such endeavors is the quality of the interaction between the people involved. Whenever people fully engage in a group effort to explore, understand, integrate, and apply their perspectives, true magic happens. And it always happens whenever people fully collaborate. And when they don't fully collaborate, failure often occurs. This observation drove me back to doctoral level studies into the very nature of collaboration including topics like personal value systems, trust, and knowledge management.

My combined experience and studies have led to the conclusion that the concept of “collective knowledge” is a defining characteristic of the human experience, for we are the only species that continually expands upon a collective knowledge base that is passed from generation to generation. What we individually know is seeded by the lessons passed on to us from prior generations, to which we then add our own unique experiences and interpretations. But this creates a very limited perspective as no single individual can ever know everything. The real value of our unique individual viewpoint is unleashed only when we combine it with the perspectives of others, and the combined insight drives us forward. Thus sharing and integrating our perspectives with that of others and expanding our collective knowledge is the ultimate expression of the human experience.

 

It is this dynamic that has made the proliferation of the World Wide Web and Internet technologies the most disruptive and transformational force we have experienced in modern times.  Such technologies are enabling knowledge sharing and collaboration on an unprecedented global scale. The phenomena of open source software is only one example of what can be achieved. Here, royalty free, feature-rich software applications are created on a purely voluntary collaborative basis, for shared use and benefit by all.     

 

DooWooWoo, LLC is our endeavor to participate in the continual evolution of this phenomena.  We leverage software developed through voluntary collaborative knowledge sharing to provide solutions that further allow for the capture, communication, and sharing of individual perspectives and harnessing of collective knowledge related to a specific purpose or interest.


Daniel E. Lewis, Ph.D.
President and Founder

DooWooWoo, LLC

When we first decided to create this venture we knew our focus was in the general field of collaboration and knowledge management. We just were not quite sure of exactly what products and services we would deliver. Therefore we knew we needed a unique, yet non-descriptive name that could be applicable to any direction taken.

The seed for our name brainstorming session was a discussion about how we shared information and knowledge in ancient times before modern communication technology existed. One model that came to mind was that of the "talking drum" used by African tribes to communicate over long distances. As we were discussing the dynamics of this method, our dog, who was outside, began to bark. You could then hear the "bark" spread through the neighborhood as the next dog over starting barking then the next, and so on. It was an uncanningly timely example of the concept we were discussing.

We let our dog in, and got back to trying to come up with potential names. Now to understand what happened next, you have to picture the commercials for a certain insurance firm, where a duck quacks the name of the company. Each time the question was asked about what a good name would be, the dog let out a muffled three syllable bark. We all laughed as it actually sounded like he was trying to talk, and then started to discern what he might be trying to say. Then it hit us. He was saying doo woo woo and it all came together in a wierd abstract way. Thus DooWooWoo, LLC was born.