In our technical IF forum (fachliches IF-Forum) of June, 24th, at Unterhaching, Thomas Vallon made quite a huge impression on our guests when he asked “Is Computer Science a Craft”?

During his presentation, he described parallels between modern software development and building a cathedral that are quite obvious when you take a closer look. In medieval times, building cathedrals was an exceptional craft. Each cathedral was a true mammoth project with its respective challenges.

Indeed, we discover that there are quite a few things they have in common. Besides, we also discover surprising “philosophical” parallels between our self-perception as software developers and those courageous medieval builders and craftsmen.

For instance, it took a very long time to build a cathedral. Sometimes, this led to different architectural epochs being prevalent while a single building was constructed (for example Gothic and Romanesque). In practice, this meant that a cathedral that was still under construction suddenly looked old-fashioned and badly needed renovation.

Since people believed in agility, they changed plans while they were in the process of building. They also modified, demolished and/or re-built entire sections of a building. There is hardly any cathedral where this was not done.

And through the entire process of “development” (while the cathedral was built), the “operation” (that is the basic function of a Lord’s house) had to continue undisturbed.

Apart from that, many cathedrals also prove in an impressive way what the craftsmen concerned with the edifice considered their “professional honour”. For example, many figures on the facade of Notre Dame have been worked with the same degree of accuracy at the back of the building and high up, although the artist certainly must have known that there was hardly going to be another human who would see it in the near future.
Well, this was only for wetting your appetite. If you want to read something really exciting, here is the manuscript.

Thomas Vallon – Ist die Informatik ein Handwerk?

Do read it!

The background images used during the presentation (designed by Johannes Naumann) are also highly recommendable:

Hintergrundbilder zum Vortrag (6)

I was particularly moved when Thomas dedicated the presentation to me as a present for my sixtieth birthday.

Thank you, Thomas!

RMD
(Translated by EG)

P.S.
What a pity that we do not have a video or audio tape of the presentation. But maybe we will manage next time!

Frau Prof. Dr. Kathrin M. Möslein at IF-Forum

On March, 2nd, 2010, Professor Möslein gave this year’s first presentation of the IF forum at Unterhaching. She spoke about:

“On Our Way to Tag Along Science!”

We filmed her presentation, cut the video into three parts and loaded them to YouTube. So now you can not only read the report here at IF blog, but also watch the videos.
Here they are:

1 – OpenInnovation

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Recently, I have started to get material from an alumni society:
Cambridge_Computer_Lab_Ring.
See Cambridge_University_Computer_Laboratory.
In 1949, EDSAC, the first programmable electronic computer in the world ran there.
When I was one of its 17 students in 1964-65, it was still called “Mathematics Laboratory”.
A sort of Technology Park (silicon fen) has grown up near it.

In the wake of open source software, open source hardware is also becoming important. But, for no good reason, different intellectual property laws apply for it, so that the exact terms of open software licences cannot be applied. Jeremy Bennett wrote about the general situation in The Cambridge Computer Lab Ring. In the spirit of open source, he makes his article available to us. See www.embecosm.com/articles/ear1/open-source-hardware.pdf

Eight Pieces of Advice For Your Popular Blog

5 Top Articles You Yourself are Proud of

Before you go online with a blog, you should have around five articles for starters. Especially during the initial phase of the blog, a high-quality article should go online every day in order to arouse the interest of future readers of the blog. During the initial phase, there are plenty of ideas for articles – which is why you should make a list and structure them well before publication.

Topics the readers are particularly interested in should be further extended. This will be the groundwork for a circle of readers that continues to come back.

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7 Pieces of Advice for Corporate Bloggers

In this article, I want to consider Corporate Blogs, i.e. blogs run by an enterprise. As you can already see from the document survey of the blogosphere (Vermessung der Blogosphäre), Corporate Blogs have a huge problem when it comes to triggering the desired response. Many readers consider blogs a portal for background information, modifying one’s opinion through discussions and contacting people. Mostly, enterprise diaries fail to give that impression – which is exactly where you should spend your energy.
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6 Important Considerations for Future Bloggers

Since more and more people manage to leave their desolate years as “non-bloggers” behind and open the door to this fascinating New World, I thought: why not provide these cheeky contemporaries with a handbook?

Let me start this new series with some basic considerations.

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Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.