Technology, Computers and Society
In this page, I will present some of my thoughts, as well as those of others, on these topics. But for starters, let me point you to some thought-provoking books (yes, real paper-type ones).
Recommended Reading
- Turing's Man by J. David Bolter
- Subtitled "Western Culture in the Computer Age" this book looks at how mankind has
defined itself and the world in terms of it's technologies at any point in time.
Bolter, a PhD, is a Professor of Literature, Communication and Culture at Georgia Tech. He also holds a Master's degree in Computer Science.
- Computer Power and Human Reason by Joseph Weizenbaum
- Weizenbaum's academic credentials are too numerous to list completely. He has been
professor of Computer Science at MIT, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford and
was an early researcher into natural language processing systems. Many people look at what
computers can do, but in this book he addresses, among other things, the question of
what things computers should not be allowed to do.
- The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder
- In this 1982 Pulitzer-Prize-winning book Kidder follows a team of engineers at Data General as
they attempt to create a new "super-minicomputer" that they hope
will revolutionize the industry. Working incredible hours, faced with constant setbacks
and spec changes, they struggle to bring it to fruition. If this sounds like a lot of other
Information Systems projects you have been involved in, you are probably right. An
engrossing look at the human cost of mis-managing a project.
Articles
- The Computer As Tool
- How has the computer become so pervasive in so short a time? The answer lies in its basic nature.
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- Information, Computer Systems and Manufacturing
- I believe the way in which manufacturing businesses view their information delivery systems is incorrect. This led me to examine the nature of information in the manufacturing process. What I discovered is that there are really three inputs to manufacturing, not just two.
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- Glasgow's Laws of Computing
- A few rules to live by if you develop software. Not totally serious, but not totally humorous, either.
Links for Professional Programmers
- Software Engineering Institute
- The SEI is a group that grew out of a DoD request to Carnegie Mellon University to devise a means of evaluating software firms and products. One of its outputs has been the Capability Maturity Model, a structure used to evaluate the maturity of the software development process.
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- Contrasts In Style
- This is a column from Computerworld that was published in 1988. In it, the author (Don Ferruggia) presents a view to understanding people's behavior based on "choice-based" vs. "rule-based" behavior. At the time I read this column, I had just completed a project where the main customer was extremely choice-based but all his employees were rule-based. Reading this column was like a bright light going on that explained all the turmoil I had experienced on this project. Computerworld has been kind enough to find it in their files and load it to their Web site for me!
Email me at me@gordon-glasgow.org