Errant Hashtag

Where do you look for the next high tech cluster? Why is harder to connect with potential areas of potential software industries that it should seem to be? In this episode, we look at the giant of Africa, Nigeria, and ask how it might be better connected to the global computing community [1707]

Ok. Software is a global industry. But how did it get that way? And what role might the United Nations have had in its globalization. The story of IFIP in this “Global Code”. [1706]

We can’t answer the question “Where is the Russian software industry going” without knowing where it has been. The story is not as simple as we might like – as any one might light. It has promise and problems, but all are held in a context that has all the making of a classic Russian tragedy. [1705]

We have a global trade in software. How does software cross borders? How do you inspect something that is little more than 1’s and 0’s? With a lot of discussion and a lot of agreement. The framework for international digital trade. [1703]

Is it a good idea to certify programmers? It depends. It depends on what you want to do. Minimize risk? Perhaps. In some cases, perhaps. To expand status? Doubtful. To build the profession? Almost certainly not. Yet, it is something that governments regularly consider, as was recently the case in Malaysia. [1702]

What’s in a name? The IEEE asked that the podcast move in a new direction just as I was spending time in Germany studying the European approach to high technology. Tech is Tech, as we all know, but different people do different things with it. And if you don’t understand the subtitles of local ideas, you may miss how people interpret or manage technology. Se we begin in a exurban suburb of Hamburg with a new name The Global Code. [1701]

Industrie 4.0. A mouvement that some, including the German government, represents a revolution that is as important to manufacturing as the original industrial revolution of the 18th century? Will it be a true revolution? Probably not? Is it important? Perhaps. What will it accomplish? It might do to manufacturing what cloud computing did to software services. It will do this with a single tool: standards. [1704]

You can’t change something until you have a way to change it. For that simple reason, a fundamental principle of change management, it took fifteen years for the U. S. Government to embrace Open Source. How and why you get from nothing to something is the theme of this episode of Errant Hashtag. [16220]

Who is a programmer? Who can speak for software? What happens when you are not formally trained in software and don’t feel the need to get such training? The world seems to be filed with software experts, whose connection to software’s quite distant. This seems especially true the world of computer-based simulation, where researchers are more intent on the outcome of the model than in the quality of their work. [16210]

Who is Ralph E. Flanders? And why should we care. Flanders is one of the links on the long chain that connects industrial engineering to software developing. In that chain, he has a special place, a place that was concerned about technical leadership and how to support that leadership. Though he is virtually forgotten today, he articulated ideas that presaged the work of Drucker, of Mintrafanov, of Frederick P Brooks. Work that reminds us that we need to care for the means of production. [16190]

Trust. What does it mean to be trusted and how can we use technology to improve trust. Blockchain and bitcoin are technologies that were originally presented as solving the trust problem but seem only to have shifted it from one group to another. The challenges of trust are mirrored in the recent trust crisis that bitcoin has faced. It returns us to the questions: “What is trust?” and “Why do we trust someone?” [16180]

What does it mean to have situational awareness? And how does situational awareness have to do with modern computing? And what kind of responsibility do you take when you lie about your situation? We explore these issues and the story of a neighbor who took events into his own hands. [16170]

What do we teach when we teach students the scientific method? And what do they learn? In this episode, we explore potential lessons of an effort to teach. [16160]

A screwdriver is a mediocre hammer but when will it suffice for the hob on hand? How do we take technology form one domain and redeploy it for another? And what happens when a train wreck intervenes? How we improvise with technology on this episode of How We Manage Stuff. [16150]

Do we truly represent a global profession? While our technology easily crosses cultural and political boundaries, can we honestly say that our professional ties move with equal ease from one country to another. I had thought that they did until an email from a young Indian student caught me short. [16140]

Yet another game has fallen to a computer program. We now have programs that can play the game of Go at an advanced level. Does it teach us anything about the way that we think? And does it teach us anything that matters to us? This week on Errant Hashtag. [16130]