Project White Horse Forum

Boyd Compendium          Edition Archive     Facebook page    “What Kind of War”

PWH begins 2010 with four new elements which can be viewed directly by clicking on the title below each picture for that element.

• The work of the late Col John Boyd has been at the core of much of what this website is about.  This page provides a partial archive of his work – created with the closing of White Horse advisor, Dr Chet Richards, Defense and the National Interest Website.
• For ease of reference, all previous editions of PWH have now been archived including the e-mail announcements and Editor’s Notes.  Previous work will be increasingly leveraged in 2010.
• There is now a Facebook link on the website to a page created on FB for the DaVinci’s Horse series and for posts considered more relevant to day-day events – such as the ongoing operations in disaster relief in Haiti.
•  In On War, Carl von Clausewitz stated that the single most important thing both a statesman and a commander must do was to determine “what kind of war” they were embarking upon.  Since the 08:46: 40 impact of American Flight 11 on the World Trade Center, have we determined or defined such?  I think not and this series leverages thinking and writing from multiple perspectives to emphasis that point and more importantly, discuss why it impedes our progress. There are 11 posts…. so far. In addition, this series is intended as essential elements of information for a culture of preparedness and  precursor to efforts to be discussed in 2010.

Edition #9 is planned to be on line by late (incorporate results and research on operations in Haiti) February (March April time frame).  Leveraging previous focus on  the idea of  a Resilient Community, a necessary Culture of Preparedness, and the portrayal of our world as “systems of systems existing in unstable equilibrium” as noted by  Dag von Lubitz in Edition #8 DaVinci’s Horse article, “The Utility of Effort,” the focus for Project White Horse  084640 in 2010 will be:

Organizational and Community Operations for Surviving and Thriving in a High Tempo Observe-Orient-Decide Act Environment

Haiti operations add: In this century we now have the arrival of the “fourth horsemen” (9-11, Tsunami, Katrina + now, Haiti) as unconventional hypercomplex crisis. Despite the oupouring of publicity, media, and massive donations, did anyone really think multi-function, multi-nation, multi-organization relief operations were going to self-collaborate?

One must ask “what kinds of organizations AND groups of organizations can operate effectively in hypercomplex environments.” No one can “lead” this by themselves. How does one resolve patient needs, security of the highest order, saving of trapped people, and distribution of badly needly supplies at exactly the same time in exactly the same location? The answer must be unconventional.

Throughout the year, the intent is to leverage all four PWH vehicles:

1. The main website “E-zine” quarterly editions
2. The FORUM/blog
3. The specifically focused INTERSECTION posts
4. The social network element of DaVinci’s Horse on Facebook.

As always your comments, suggestions and offer of articles is most desired. Best way to communicate (note anti-SPAM spelling) – projectwhitehorsatroadrunnerdotcom.

Thanks for your readership and past comments!

Ed@PWH

Tags: Project White Horse