Schedule

Quiz
Discuss Read D. Tsichritzis, "How to Surf the Technology Waves We Created" CACM 2/97 p. 49
Next time BEGIN NEW SEGMENT OF COURSE!
HW for next time: read B. (Dee) Dangubic's annotated bibliography
There will be a quiz next time on it
Make a note of any vocabulary or questions you have or would like to discuss, and email them to me (or bring to class)
Monday: B. "Dee" Dangubic leads discussion on his bibliography

Dennis Tsichritzis

Prof. of Computer Science at Universite de Geneve, Centre Universitaire d'Informatique, (Switzerland)
Chief Scientist of National Research Center for Information Technology (Germany)
Specializes in database research
His home pages are pretty uninformative!

Discussion Items

Bi-Tri-Tetra science - a new reincarnation of the "renaissance man" concept"
We are creating the waves - might as well try to turn them to our advantage (how?)
Does people's work experience impact their personalities? (Cf. the personality characteristics (organization, management, etc.) of members of the five tech generations
Being "nice to people" - is it more important in the future, or just a general rule equally applicable to all times?
Which generation the author belongs to?
How should computer professionals deal with "fear for their jobs at every new development"?
How long will computer jobs continue to be plentiful? (Let's try the Delphi method..)
Waves mean changes in our profession...
"Computer people have to understand communications"
"Multimedia applications are not simply graphics but [also]" art, cognition, etc.
"...knowing an application domain in depth is critical for supporting it properly with information technology"
(example: complex medical instruments; organizational administration software; consider writing software to advise students on what classes to take - what kind of domain knowledge would the programmer need to have?
... but we don't learn application domains in school - should we? could we? what is a computer professional to do?
In what ways are "the world's temp... speeding up"? (or is it?)
"waves...present risks, but only for those who do not surf them properly"
If we surf properly (what is surfing?), "these waves bring ...career advantages [and] fun"
Is getting a degree in computing a good thing to do or not?
In the future, will humans interact with other humans more or less than now? (What about now, as compared to the past?)
In the future, "Successful people are not necessarily the highly organized or the hard working; instead, success may come to the quick and lateral thinkers who act fast and thrive in chaotic environments"
What do you make of that?
What would an "imagination description language" involve? (a "better graphics editor?")
Advice: is this good advice or bad??
be nice, it's safer
avoid arrogance - it's nicer
the higher/more visible positions are "the most dangerous" so don't oversell yourself
loyalty to persons/organizations is good to develop
avoid conflict - it wastes resources (so what to do?)
your knowledge not your past is important
change happens, resistance is useless
try things *before* they become popular - then you're a step ahead of the competition
keep contacts in different communities
defend your opinions "constantly", reassess them "periodically"