#miriam posner

[wearewcc]

We can teach women to code, but that just creates another problem

Get-girls-to-code initiatives aim to fix tech’s gender imbalance – but they may help reinforce it

[asmallexperiment]

Agile and the Long Crisis of Software

I never recommended this piece here, but it occurs to me that I probably should. Miriam Posner's Agile and the Long Crisis of Software is really brilliant, pulling together a lot of threads about agile--and technical project management, in general--that I don't think you usually get, even if you're working through a PMP cert or reading deeply in the history of software development.

A couple highlights:

Nevertheless, the field of electronic data processing—the automation of office functions, like time cards and payroll—was growing rapidly. The hulking machines designed for the purpose, leased from IBM, quickly became the hallmark of the technologically forward-thinking operation. But they required teams of operators to design the programs, prepare the punch cards, and feed data into the system. Established managers resented the specialized expertise and professional eccentricity of the growing ranks of “computer boys.” They resented, too, that software projects seemed to defy any estimation of cost and complexity. The famed computer scientist Frederick Brooks compared software projects to werewolves: they start out with puppy-like innocence, but, more often than not, they metamorphose into “a monster of missed schedules, blown budgets, and flawed products.” You could say, then, that by the late 1960s, software development was facing three crises: a crying need for more programmers; an imperative to wrangle development into something more predictable; and, as businesses saw it, a managerial necessity to get developers to stop acting so weird. 

and then, describing things a little farther along, in a way that will be familiar to a lot of people:

The image of the free-thinking nonconformist fits the philosophy of Agile. The manifesto’s authors may have looked like textbook engineers, in button-downs with cell-phone holsters, but “a bigger group of organizational anarchists would be hard to find,” according to Jim Highsmith, one of their number. Particularly in the early days, there was a lot of talk about the challenge Agile posed to the traditional management paradigm. Agile’s proponents were proud of this nonconformity: the framework “scares the bejeebers out of traditionalists,” wrote Highsmith in 2001. “Agile was openly, militantly, anti-management in the beginning,” writes the software developer and consultant Al Tenhundfeld. “For example, Ken Schwaber [a manifesto author] was vocal and explicit about his goal to get rid of all project managers.” 

Anti-management, maybe, but not anti-corporate, not really. It’s tempting to see the archetypal Agile developer as a revival of the long-haired countercultural weirdo who lurked around the punch card machines of the late 1960s. But the two personas differ in important respects. The eccentrics of computing’s early years wanted to program for the sheer thrill of putting this new technology to work. The coder of Agile’s imagination is committed, above all, to the project. He hates administrative intrusion because it gets in the way of his greatest aspiration, which is to do his job at the highest level of professional performance. Like the developers in Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Network, he wants most of all to be in “the zone”: headphones on, distractions eliminated, in a state of pure communion with his labor.

There is much, much more in the piece. I can't recommend it more if you have even a peripheral interest in the topic.

[oral-history]

"The Canadian Society for Digital Humanities (http://csdh-schn.org/) invites scholars, practitioners, and graduate students to submit proposals for papers and digital demonstrations for its annual meeting, which will be held at the 2017 Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities, Ryerson University, from May 29th to 31st (http://congress2017.ca/). The theme of this year’s Congress is “From Far and Wide: Canada’s Next 150”, and is aimed at encouraging diversity, an awareness of our past, and a critical look at where we are headed." Papers by Jan. 4. miriamposner Pinboard (miriamposner) http://ift.tt/2dSQdMP December 09, 2016 at 07:24PM http://ift.tt/eA8V8J "The Canadian Society for Digital Humanities (http://csdh-schn.org/) invites scholars, practitioners, and graduate students to submit proposals for papers and digital demonstrations for its annual meeting, which will be held at the 2017 Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities, Ryerson University, from May 29th to 31st (http://congress2017.ca/). The theme of this year’s Congress is “From Far and Wide: Canada’s Next 150”, and is aimed at encouraging diversity, an awareness of our past, and a critical look at where we are headed." Papers by Jan. 4. CFP: Canadian Society for Digital Humanities (Toronto, May 29-31)

http://csdh-schn.org/2016/12/04/1256/

[oral-history]

CFP: The USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research Abstracts by Jan. 15. CFP: Digital Approaches to Genocide Studies (USC, Oct. 23-24) Digital technologies have begun to significantly influence contemporary scholarship, theories, and methods in the social sciences and humanities. The USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research invites scholars from all disciplines to examine the relationships between digital methodologies, practices, ethics and contemporary Holocaust and genocide studies. How can digital humanities shape, challenge, or complement contemporary genocide studies and vice versa?" Abstracts by Jan. 15. via miriamposner http://ift.tt/2dSQdMP December 09, 2016 at 07:16PM http://ift.tt/eA8V8J

http://sfi.usc.edu/news/2016/11/12664-call-papers-digital-approaches-genocide-studies

[oral-history]

" The Department of Philosophy and Division of Emerging Media at Boston University invite applications for a Mellon Foundation post-doctoral fellowship in the study of ethical, social and epistemological issues arising out of emerging computational technologies. Areas of specialization may include social and political philosophy, philosophy of science, and epistemology, but with a strong interest in the theme of the Mellon Sawyer Seminar to be held over the 2017-2018 academic year." Apply by Jan. 1. miriamposner Pinboard (miriamposner) http://ift.tt/2dSQdMP December 09, 2016 at 06:58PM http://ift.tt/eA8V8J " Apply by Jan. 1. Job: Postdoctoral Fellowship, Philosophy and Emerging Media, Boston University

http://www.indeed.com/job/Mellon-Foundation-Post-Doctoral-Fellowship-at-Boston-University-in-Boston,-MA-80f28870c0b49dba

[oral-history]

"The UC Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI) seeks a talented and motivated individual with experience in academic and research program development and administration. UCHRI is the systemwide organization serving all 10 campuses in the UC system. The Research Programs Manager will work in close collaboration with the Director, Assistant Director, Research Communications Manager, Program Officer, and technology staff." One-year position. http://ift.tt/2dSQdMP December 09, 2016 at 06:54PM http://ift.tt/eA8V8J One-year position. Job: Research Programs Manager, UC Humanities Research Institute, UC Irvine

http://www.indeed.com/job/Research-Program-Manager-at-University-of-California-in-Irvine,-CA-1fe82c77c7d0aa7b

[oral-history]

"The Wallace Center (TWC) at Rochester Institute of Technology invites applications for an experienced and industrious Digital Humanities and Social Sciences Librarian to support the nation’s first Digital Humanities and Social Sciences (DHSS) Bachelor Degree program and to cultivate the University’s growing digital humanities/social sciences efforts." Job posted Dec. 5. miriamposner Pinboard (miriamposner) http://ift.tt/2dSQdMP December 09, 2016 at 06:52PM http://ift.tt/eA8V8J "The Wallace Center (TWC) at Rochester Institute of Technology invites applications for an experienced and industrious Digital Humanities and Social Sciences Librarian to support the nation’s first Digital Humanities and Social Sciences (DHSS) Bachelor Degree program and to cultivate the University’s growing digital humanities/social sciences efforts." Job posted Dec. 5. Job: Digital Humanities and Social Sciences Librarian, Rochester Institute of Technology

http://www.indeed.com/job/Digital-Humanity-Social-Science-Librarian-at-The-Wallace-Center-in-Rochester,-NY-bf1bc869f71b3881

[oral-history]

"Are you a technically savvy higher education professional who loves building relationships on campus and providing creative solutions? Do you have experience supporting digital humanities and interacting with faculty to help them bring to life ideas for their classrooms that will be challenging and engaging for students? University of Richmond's Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology (CTLT) is currently seeking an Academic Technology Consultant to support the Humanities faculty in the School of Arts and Sciences." Job posted Nov. 30. miriamposner Pinboard (miriamposner) http://ift.tt/2dSQdMP December 09, 2016 at 06:51PM http://ift.tt/eA8V8J "Are you a technically savvy higher education professional who loves building relationships on campus and providing creative solutions? Do you have experience supporting digital humanities and interacting with faculty to help them bring to life ideas for their classrooms that will be challenging and engaging for students? University of Richmond's Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology (CTLT) is currently seeking an Academic Technology Consultant to support the Humanities faculty in the School of Arts and Sciences." Job posted Nov. 30. Job: Academic Technology Consultant, University of Richmond

http://www.indeed.com/job/Academic-Technology-Consultant-at-University-of-Richmond-in-Richmond,-VA-29f834e6b63f6275