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Software ecosystem, greenwash or new understanding?

February 17, 2008

Last week Computerworld reported IDC’s annual top ten predictions for the NZ computing industry. Number one is the impact of the skills crisis in NZ computing slowing investment. Number five is: Green IT – issues behind the hype will shine through What interests me most is their repeated use of the term “ecosystem”: 3. Emergence […]

Ignored reading pile in summer of swimming

January 14, 2008

So, back at my desk after an incredible summer. Hottest on record, lots of swimming. How much of the summer reading pile got read? None. Not a diddle. Until yesterday that is, when I looked at the pile I’ve ignored all summer. Then I ignored it some more and went for another swim. But I […]

Computing Ethics meet Computing Sustainability

October 2, 2007

Computing ethics met computing sustainability at the weekend when we had lunch with Don Gotterbarn and Sylvia Nagl. Don was the lead author on most of what we recognise as computing’s codes of ethics (see my notes) while Sylvia’s work in complex systems is pushing the limits of computing. Don was in London on ACM/IFIP […]

SHaC09 spawns green challenge for computing students

September 12, 2007

I’ve previously posted about the Sustainable Habitat Challenge. This is the New Zealand sustainable building challenge to be held over the next couple of years. I’m on the SHaC steering committee. This gave us the opportunity to volunteer to develop the computer system to support the teams and administration of ShaC. This work is being […]

Biomimicry in software engineering – a super system metaphor?

August 27, 2007

Biomimicry is described as: Biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate) is a design discipline that studies nature’s best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems. Studying a leaf to invent a better solar cell is an example of this “innovation inspired by nature.” The core idea […]