science

Team OS/2

Team OS/2 is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Team OS/2 rather than just read about it. In short: Team OS/2 was a crowd-sourced advocacy group formed to promote IBM's OS/2 operating system. Originally internal to IBM with no formal IBM support, Team OS/2 successfully converted to a grassroots movement formally supported (but not directed) by IBM - consisting of well over ten thousand OS/2 enthusiasts both within and without IBM.

Key takeaways

Team OS/2 belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Team OS/2 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Team OS/2 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Team OS/2 was a crowd-sourced advocacy group formed to promote IBM's OS/2 operating system. Originally internal to IBM with no formal IBM support, Team OS/2 successfully converted to a grassroots movement formally supported (but not directed) by IBM - consisting of well over ten thousand OS/2 enthusiasts both within and without IBM. It is one of the earliest examples of both an online viral phenomenon and a cause attracting supporters primarily through online communications. The decline of Team OS/2 largely coincided with IBM's abandonment of OS/2 and the coinciding attacks orchestrated by Microsoft on OS/2, Team OS/2, and IBM's early attempts at online evangelism.

History

Beginnings Team OS/2 was a significant factor in the spread and acceptance of OS/2. Formed in February 1992, Team OS/2 began when IBM employee Dave Whittle, recently appointed by IBM to evangelize OS/2 online, formed an internal IBM discussion group titled TEAMOS2 FORUM on IBM's worldwide network, which at the time, served more individuals than any other commercial worldwide network. The forum header stated that its purpose was

for the discussion of those things that empowered IBMers, working as a team, can do to promote the success of OS/2, focused on synergy and combining talents to achieve results greater than the sum of individual efforts through teamwork. The forum went viral as increasing numbers of IBMers worldwide began to contribute a wide variety of ideas as to how IBM could effectively compete with Microsoft to establish OS/2 as the industry standard desktop operating system. Within a short time, thousands of IBM employees had added the words TEAMOS2 to their internet phone directory listing, which enabled anyone within IBM to find like-minded OS/2 enthusiasts within the company and work together to overcome the challenges posed by IBM's size, insularity, and top-down marketing style. TEAMOS2 FORUM quickly caught the attention of some IBM executives, including Lee Reiswig and Lucy Baney, who after initial scepticism, offered moral and financial support for Whittle's grass roots and online marketing efforts. IBM's official program for generating word-of-mouth enthusiasm was called the "OS/2 Ambassador Program", where OS/2 enthusiasts company-wide could win Gold, Silver, and Bronze Ambassador pins and corporate recognition with various levels of structured achievement. Both the OS/2 Ambassador Program and Team OS/2 were effective in evangelizing OS/2 within IBM, but only Team OS/2 was effective in generating support for the promotion of OS/2 outside of IBM.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Team OS/2

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Team OS/2 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Team OS/2 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Team OS/2 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Team OS/2

In research: Team OS/2 appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Team OS/2 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Team OS/2 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics OS/2, Operating system advocacy, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Team OS/2 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Team OS/2 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Team OS/2 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Team OS/2 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Team OS/2 in simple terms?

Why does Team OS/2 matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Team OS/2?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Team OS/2.