"Nobody is as smart as everybody." The phrase leaps from the pages of a new book by my former Wall Street Journal colleague Tom Petzinger. The line is duly noted inside, where the book gets a rave review. But the line also serves as a theme for this issue of Context, which largely focuses on how to learn through partnerships and experimentation.

Bill Gates says in this issue's interview, "A View From the Top," that senior executives need to experiment personally if they're to understand electronic commerce. If you want to figure out how the economy will function in years to come, when the Internet is truly ubiquitous, go and study places that are already wired, he says. Gates offers high-tech companies and universities as possible places for executives to go observe and test their products. As a "homework assignment," the Microsoft chairman says executives should discover how to take a digital photo and then send it around the Internet. He also urges managers to create an e-mail culture that lets executives learn from their companies' mistakes. He says the right corporate culture is one that makes sure that bad news, not good news, travels fast.

Three related articles explore the critical role that partnerships can play in helping companies gather expertise and test new ideas. "The Buddy System," a feature, looks at the explosion of alliances in the corporate world—including some that, until very recently, would have been considered strange bedfellows. The article says that the classic "make vs. buy" choice has now become "make vs. buy vs. partner." "Nothing Ventured...," by a Yahoo! executive, lays out the principles behind that company's phenomenal success with partnerships. The column says that, in a way, Yahoo's business is partnerships. The company has roughly one partnership per employee. "Shall We Dance?" says that companies need to look at their whole portfolio of partnerships, rather than just manage each individually. The piece then offers some pointers on how to get more out of each of four types of partnerships.

Whether computers have a role to play in learning is the debating point in "Distant Thunder." Might computers replace most teachers, as some "distance learning" advocates suggest? Or is there too much value in gathering face to face at schools, as we've been doing for centuries? Computer pioneer Alan Kay and renowned educator Neil Postman carry on a lively conversation that begins with a surprising observation—that any discussion about tools for distance learning should begin with the book.

Finally, "Low-Tech High-Tech," a feature on Pacific Pride, an extremely profitable distributor of gasoline to business fleets, proves that it's possible to learn new tricks from old dogs. The story shows how the proper use of information can let a company "decommoditize" even the most mundane product, without necessarily spending much money. Pacific Pride has avoided all technological developments of the past 15 years, instead relying on punch-card technology whose origins date to the 19th century. Yet the company creates and captures information of such value to its customers that they're willing to pay an extra 20 cents a gallon.

Looks like we can, and do, learn a lot from each other.

Cheers,

Paul B. Carroll
Editor-in-Chief

P.S. For fun, read "The Humanoid Condition," by Peter Cochrane, chief technologist at British Telecom. He says that, while most of us fear the movies' depiction of cyborgs, he's glad he's becoming one. I'll leave it to him to explain.