Ergo Letter Bag

This is a response to a recent blog post by Mark Guzdial , chairman of the ACM education board. Open Source is an integral part of a well rounded computing education. While I will praise efforts to raise awareness of demographic barriers in open source development, I would challenge Mark to do a better job lining up his arguments and checking his references. Especially when many of his links have little or nothing to do with the statements attributed to them. His link "more closed and less diverse than commercial software" links to a National Center for Women in Technology recruitment flyer. -Which sounds like a wonderful organization, but having read it now 3 times through says nothing about open source being more closed or less diverse. The next link "overwhelmingly White or Asian and male" links to a OSCON presentation which says a lot about the male/female ratio... but nothing about white/asian demographics. Furthermore, it is a presentation which shows that the...

A couple weeks ago, I finished reading Kiln People by David Brin. A couple nights back, I watched Surrogates starring Bruce Willis. Kiln People was published back in 2002. The plot can be quickly summarized as... In a future where individuals can send short-lived clones of themselves out to accomplish tasks and later reintegrate... A gumshoe detective in the midst of cornering his arch nemesis drops down a rabbit hole into a convoluted conspiracy of epic proportions. David Brin performs his usual phenomenal job of exploring the possible effects of future technology on society. However, the story takes a back seat to world building. Kiln People is a good read, but it is not a page turner. Surrogates was released Sept. 2009 and follows nearly the same plot (without crediting Brin). Instead of clay surrogates we have robots. The conspiracy is streamlined and simplified... but leads to the same destination. The introspection of technology and its affects on society are dumbed down to...