[Sussex] Worth a read

[Mark Harrison]

Interesting read, but I found it a bit flawed.

To say that "we should understand coding" is like saying "we should
understand car mechanics". I know how to drive, and I am proud of my recent
acheivement of changing 8 spark plugs and the bush on the otter switch on my
car... however, I am willing to bet that 80% of SLUG members have no idea
what an otter switch is, let alone where the bush fits it... Nonetheless,
this does not prevent SLUG people from driving, or functioning in a mobile
society. One would be hard pushed to argue that the motor car has had LESS
of a social impact over the last 100 years than the Internet will over the
next 100...

A call to arms to teach "IT literacy" is akin to a call, as genuinely
occurred in the 50s, that everyone would need to start understanding car
mechanics. Judging by the ages at the average SLUGMoot, our parent's
generation problem DID need to do this... but we don't.

One of the key problems in managing IT these days is the "power user
syndrome". There are a cadre of people who aren't IT professionals, but
learn a LITTLE coding, and build complex, poorly architected, and
unmaintainable systems on which small workgroups start relying. Eventually,
as the organisation changes, it falls to the IS department to support what
has become a "critical application".

It would, surely, be better to install in the community the view that coding
was a form of engineering, and ensure that the IT profession started acting
as a profession, rather being seen in the same picture as a bunch of
untrained enthusiasts who have entered IT because they believe "they'll make
loads of money, innit."

Anyway - that's my late night starter for 10... discuss :-)

Regards,

Mark


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Dobson" <steve at krasnegar.demon.co.uk>
To: "Sussex Linux User Group" <sussex at mailman.lug.org.uk>
Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2003 11:18 PM
Subject: [Sussex] Worth a read


> _______________________________________________
> Sussex mailing list
> Sussex at mailman.lug.org.uk
> http://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/sussex
>