Netscape: OPEN SOURCE SOLUTIONS, Inc.
Wednesday, March 18, 1998


The concept of "virtual intelligence" emerged from the intersection of the professional experience of OSS Inc. founder Mr.
Robert D. Steele with the vision and writing of Mr. Howard Rheingold, author of seminal works on tools for thought, virtual reality, and virtual communities. However, as useful as the Internet can be in supporting the creation and nurturing of a "virtual community", it is vital that all concerned remember that roughly 80% of knowledge is either not in written form or is in hard-copy rather than digital form; that is not in English; and that is "someplace else" and must be discovered, discriminated, distilled, and delivered in order to be useful. Human beings who are skilled in specific subject-matter areas including foreign language and foreign area skills, are the foundation of the "virtual intelligence" community. How they communicate is much less important that the fact that they can and do communicate. Nurturing distributed centers of human expertise is the heart of "virtual intelligence". 
Below are three illustrations, one of the "information continuum", and two of how an organization might establish a small cell with specific kinds of expertise, able to deliver four levels of service to its in-house customers by taking full advantage of the global "virtual intelligence" community. 



Virtual Intelligence
Paper