System Evolution

The nature of these technological interventions needs discussion. In the past, Reclamation's projects have had beginnings and ends. For example, the agency constructed a dam and then turned it over to the water users to pay for and operate. In the case of automation and Internet technologies, there is a continually evolving product. The technologies get more sophisticated and less costly with each passing day. And as the technologies get more complex, so do the needs of the irrigators and other water users. With real-time technologies we are promoting a process more than a product.

How this process might work is described in Eric S. Raymond's (1997) seminal monograph: "The Cathedral and the Bazaar." Raymond likens a traditional approach to product development to constructing a cathedral, an edifice carefully crafted by artisans working in inspirational isolation, with no beta release before its time. The process he envisions (the bazaar), however, is more promiscuous. No quiet, reverent cathedral building here, rather a noisy bazaar of differing agendas and approaches out of which a coherent and stately system emerges. The mantra becomes "release early, release often." It is this "bazaar" (or bizarre) that the authors have tried to emulate on its automation/Internet projects.

Traditionally, Reclamation had a fairly rigid product development process (cathedral). This approach was taken in the development and installation of large SCADA systems. The problems with the "cathedral process" for small-scale automation systems are numerous: (1) it is too costly; (2) it takes too long; (3) the equipment is seriously out of date by the time it is installed and fully functional; (4) hardware and software are frequently proprietary; (5) the customer does not always get what he needs; and (6) it is difficult for the product to evolve.

With the everybody-get-involved, bazaar-style development, the product evolves over time in concert with technological change and maturing water user needs. As prototypes (both hardware and software) are rushed to the field, feedback is critical. It becomes necessary for everybody involved in the project to interact, something the Internet facilitates.