Comments on: L'informatique est morte. Vive l'informatique! http://lackoftalent.org/michael/blog/2007/03/19/linformatique-est-morte-vive-linformatique/ The occasional rambling of a digital library artisan Fri, 02 Dec 2011 10:37:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Mycado http://lackoftalent.org/michael/blog/2007/03/19/linformatique-est-morte-vive-linformatique/comment-page-1/#comment-91453 Mycado Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:35:57 +0000 http://lackoftalent.org/michael/blog/2007/03/19/linformatique-est-morte-vive-linformatique/#comment-91453 Computing need to be the left hand of the men. Computing need to be the left hand of the men.

]]> By: mjgiarlo http://lackoftalent.org/michael/blog/2007/03/19/linformatique-est-morte-vive-linformatique/comment-page-1/#comment-13020 mjgiarlo Thu, 19 Apr 2007 15:51:31 +0000 http://lackoftalent.org/michael/blog/2007/03/19/linformatique-est-morte-vive-linformatique/#comment-13020 Hey Shaun, I suspect that there already is some cross-pollination taking place, based on my limited experience in academia. For instance, one of the professors at SCILS who teaches Information Retrieval came out of a Computer Science Ph.D. program, and the Computational Linguistics program at the University of Washington both has strong ties to the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering departments and encourages computer science students to apply. (The theory being that the linguistics department can better teach linguistics to computer science grads and programmers than they can teach programming to linguistics grads.) Computer scientists possess a wealth of skills to be applied to these areas, especially the latter two, NLS and IR. Their skills in higher-level mathematics and training in algorithms and data structures are crucial to NLS and IR innovation, in my humble opinion, and probably cannot come from Library Studies programs alone. I'm not suggesting that Computer scientists go it alone. But if they are going through an existential crisis, they should know that there are plenty of interesting, lucrative, sexy, bleeding-edge problems out there to dedicate their considerable skills to. Glad you're enjoying the Rails Way! I've got voluminous notes from that series. If you're also interested in the dead-simple way that Rails implements the REST architecture -- which I am now coming around to -- check out this ongoing series of posts[1]. The best way to learn Ruby and Rails, IMO, are the canonical books from the Pragmatic Programmer series: Programming Ruby, 2nd Ed.[2] (known as the "pickaxe"), and Agile Web Development with Rails, 2nd Ed.[3]. Definitely worth the cashish if you're serious about learning either! They've been indispensable to my learning, and I now have a love affair with Ruby. Thanks for writing in, Shaun. :) 1. http://www.softiesonrails.com/tags/rest 2. http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/ruby/index.html 3. http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/rails2/index.html Hey Shaun,

I suspect that there already is some cross-pollination taking place, based on my limited experience in academia.

For instance, one of the professors at SCILS who teaches Information Retrieval came out of a Computer Science Ph.D. program, and the Computational Linguistics program at the University of Washington both has strong ties to the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering departments and encourages computer science students to apply. (The theory being that the linguistics department can better teach linguistics to computer science grads and programmers than they can teach programming to linguistics grads.)

Computer scientists possess a wealth of skills to be applied to these areas, especially the latter two, NLS and IR. Their skills in higher-level mathematics and training in algorithms and data structures are crucial to NLS and IR innovation, in my humble opinion, and probably cannot come from Library Studies programs alone.

I'm not suggesting that Computer scientists go it alone. But if they are going through an existential crisis, they should know that there are plenty of interesting, lucrative, sexy, bleeding-edge problems out there to dedicate their considerable skills to.

Glad you're enjoying the Rails Way! I've got voluminous notes from that series. If you're also interested in the dead-simple way that Rails implements the REST architecture — which I am now coming around to — check out this ongoing series of posts[1].

The best way to learn Ruby and Rails, IMO, are the canonical books from the Pragmatic Programmer series: Programming Ruby, 2nd Ed.[2] (known as the "pickaxe"), and Agile Web Development with Rails, 2nd Ed.[3]. Definitely worth the cashish if you're serious about learning either! They've been indispensable to my learning, and I now have a love affair with Ruby.

Thanks for writing in, Shaun. :)

1. http://www.softiesonrails.com/tags/rest
2. http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/ruby/index.html
3. http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/rails2/index.html

]]> By: Shaun http://lackoftalent.org/michael/blog/2007/03/19/linformatique-est-morte-vive-linformatique/comment-page-1/#comment-13014 Shaun Thu, 19 Apr 2007 15:11:04 +0000 http://lackoftalent.org/michael/blog/2007/03/19/linformatique-est-morte-vive-linformatique/#comment-13014 Michael, Yes, computer science in academia IS greatly removed from much of the software development industry. It's a shame that some of the challenges the industry faces are not being addressed by computer science departments. However, I wonder what skills in particular do computer scientists posess that would improve research and development of the semantic web, natural language searching, and information retrieval? It would be great if some cross-polination of ideas could occur, but in the end, perhaps Business, IT, and Library Science departments should take the lead in those areas of research and work to acquire the skills necessary to take it to the next level. By the way, thanks for the "Rails Way" blog link in your 3/21/2007 post. I haven't gotten to any Rails development yet, but it may not be far away! Excellent resource. Great titles for your posts too... I particularly like "Will Libraries Smell Like Teen Spirit?" Michael,
Yes, computer science in academia IS greatly removed from much of the software development industry. It's a shame that some of the challenges the industry faces are not being addressed by computer science departments. However, I wonder what skills in particular do computer scientists posess that would improve research and development of the semantic web, natural language searching, and information retrieval? It would be great if some cross-polination of ideas could occur, but in the end, perhaps Business, IT, and Library Science departments should take the lead in those areas of research and work to acquire the skills necessary to take it to the next level.

By the way, thanks for the "Rails Way" blog link in your 3/21/2007 post. I haven't gotten to any Rails development yet, but it may not be far away! Excellent resource.

Great titles for your posts too… I particularly like "Will Libraries Smell Like Teen Spirit?"

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