Thinking wicked

I've been collecting my thoughts -- and citations -- for the symposium proposal that's due on Monday. At first it felt strange to be working on a design-based concept for a management conference, but there's more to "wickedness" than design can solve by itself. I purchased a copy of the two-page editorial by C. West Churchill in a 1967 Management Science that (together with work by Horst Rittel in policy planning) is frequently citied as the source of discussions on wicked problems. I discovered that the citation is vol. 14 issue 4, and not vol. 4 issue 14 that is cited just about everywhere so I wonder how many people have actually read Churchill's piece. Few, judging by the fact that his ideas about the moral context of problem solving don't seem to be discussed. I've been creating mind-maps of various schemes rattling around in my head, trying to make connections that will be an interesting story for the EAM folks. More work to do tomorrow on the plane.

My "skin" for my new laptop arrived by FedEx. The computer is somewhere en route from Shanghai, so I won't have it till next week. And the pouch doesn't fit my current laptop, so it sits idle.