Last Friday I attended the presentation of a fraternity friend of mine who presented his
masters thesis, as the last step in finishing his study in informatics at our Alma Mater.
He had made a theoretical model for, and built a prototype of, a webportal for a defense contractor here in the Netherlands. From his presentation I concluded I have moved away significantly from the technological viewpoint and also the more industrial organisational model. In his presentation much emphasis was given to security issues, in fact the whole model was focussing on it. Not very strange for a defense contractor, but in all his story the people meant to use the system were never once mentioned….. Pondering how it was that apart from the users, his presentation also left out almost all aspects I would deem important in these kinds of projects (e.g. sharing to name but one), I came to the conclusion I could have held the same presentation 8 years ago, and believe every word of it.
It’s just that I, while still understanding the technological aspects, have
moved away from the techie viewpoint. It’s in building bridges between people
and technology that I have found joy in my work, and I now seem to have built my dwellings on that bridge in good old medieval style.