If true about Steve Jobs ...

Hi all,

It's been some time since my last post, much has happened professionally and personally, almost all great news. Still, this blog is important to me, and I need to resume.

Nothing link the following excerpt from a New Yorker story about Steve Jobs:

Jobs, we learn, was a bully. “He had the uncanny capacity to know exactly what your weak point is, know what will make you feel small, to make you cringe,” a friend of his tells Isaacson. Jobs gets his girlfriend pregnant, and then denies that the child is his. He parks in handicapped spaces.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/11/14/111114fa_fact_gladwell#ixzz1d3B6OZ6a

I had heard stories of Jobs' confrontational, ranting management style indirectly from a few employees. Since his death, the tributes and "non-tributes" have emerged. Love most of the products, save the heavy-handed closeness of the software, and the constraint for iTunes and the App store.

Still, if the above quote is true, then my opinion of the Apple founder has diminished. I think you can be an innovator, a CEO, and a visionary without impeding the vulnerable.

And to think of how much we talk about accessibility and interface when discussing Apple ;-) -- all opinions are mine -- JD

Computer Engineer Barbie ...

... take a look at what Barbie's new career will be (by popular demand) -- JD

http://www.barbie.com/vote/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35372184/ns/business-retail/

Your Vote Needed (for all the "Barbies" out there)

Once again Mattel is providing a chance for people to vote on Barbie's next career, and computer engineer is among the choices -- please consider voting for this option (and thanks to Jane Prey for alerting us to the vote).

CACM Feb 2009

An article in the Feb 2009 just hit my eyes, authored by Maria Klawe (SIGCSE 2005 keynote) et. al., it revisits the access to computing education for women that was covered in a 1995 piece by the authors -- I got access from here, tough the full reference is below -- and Happy New 2010!

Klawe, M., Whitney, T., and Simard, C. 2009. Women in computing---take 2. Commun. ACM 52, 2 (Feb. 2009), 68-76. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1461928.1461947

Lab and lounge space matters

A recent study at the University of Washington indicates that work space matters in terms of engaging women in computer science and engineering. How many of your lab spaces look like the photo to the right?

So it is OK for our Department to have a nice pizza party as long as they clean up well.

Other ideas? Feng shui anyone? Seriously, I certainly looked into this when arranging the desk in my office, but not in the CS Teaching lab -- I plan to over break.

Paul Samuelson Dies ...

Yes, he was an economist, not a computer scientist, but in this blog about diversity and accessibility, I could not help note one of his more lucid and sharp observations:

When women began complaining about career and salary inequities, for example, [Pf. Samuelson] said in their defense, “Women are men without money.”

It might be abstractly phrased "... without access."

CS Education Week

Well, hope you did not miss it, for the first time the Congress has recognized the importance of education/preparation for computer science in the US, some links below:

• CS Education Week online
• NSF hosted discussion on CS education, including participants from Google, UCLA and the NSF
• ACM website
• House Resolution

Testing the accessibility of Web 2.0

from the University of Southampton: ECS researchers have begun a trial of browser and USB (Universal Serial Bus) pen drive applications to assist with the accessibility of Web 2.0 services. more ...

Accessibility is more than technology

I am using this space to "rant" a bit about the technically sophisticated but "content and organizationally-challenged" website for the Social Security Administration -- and since the term "accessibility" is on the blog, I'm going for it.

The SSA website is accessible -- in fact, more accessible than most -- with options for users with vision impairments (larger text), Spanish language, and alternatives including phone. Even high-contrast (black text on white) with color used to support navigation.

The big, embarrassing issue is content organization. I have a simple question: "Are my kids eligible for survivor benefits?" The question is even found on this page, and it appears that I need to apply. But when you get to that link, there's nothing about survivor benefits. I did not expect a direct answer on a website since my one child is a survivor and has a disability.

So I tried the phone system, with a speaker phone so I could do some work while waiting on hold. Not only did I wait, but the system -- not a person -- hung up on me -- twice.

My father worked for the Social Security Administration, and now I realize the value of his work. The sad part is that his job could have been more productive if he had computing tools that should exist but did not in his day.

I suspect that the existence of an "accessible website" has convinced the SSA that they do not need as many feet on the ground -- but are they wrong. In this case, a poor tool is worse than no tool since it seems I cannot connect, using 20th century technology (i.e., phone), with someone like my father for help.

Thanks for letting me vent a bit.

Not even engineering

A recently completed study from the National Research Council's National Academy of Engineering (NAE) characterizes the extent and nature of initiatives to teach engineering to K-12 students in the United States. That's great, but similar efforts should be addressed regarding computing.

From the article:

"And with this increased focus, some education experts say momentum is building for more recognition of the "T" and "E" in STEM--technology and engineering, two subjects often overlooked."

I see that engineering and technology may have a point, but at least they are in the acronym (i.e., there is no "C" in the acronym "STEM", though there is computing throughout STEM disciplines) -- perhaps we should come up with another acronym, like "CEMTS" that put computing into the name -- I am open to other suggestions.

Oh, and this make the "diversity through accessibility" blog due to another observation:

"The National Science Foundation (NSF) estimates that although women earned more than 50 percent of all science and engineering bachelor's degrees in 2006, they earned only about 20 percent of degrees in engineering, computer science, and physics."