Fr. Roberto Busa (1913 - 2011)

Resquiescat in pace‏.

Happy Birthday

My wife Florinda gave birth on Sunday to our first child, Francis Maria Arpaia.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

What Wikipedia is good for?

I confess I am not a fan. Notwithstanding, I consult Wikipedia for "indisputable" material like maths, geography, dates of birth, movies release...you got the flavour, right? That's fine and practical.
Things get hotter when there’s a general agreement and when there’s widespread disagreement on values or facts, as with, say, the origins of communism; you get both sides. Not optimum, though, because both sides are forced to make their point by emphasizing the contrast with the other side. As a result, it is not a reliable source. Instead,  buy a good book, read a good article or just follow a great blog.
The trouble comes when one side is right and the other side is wrong and neither are aware of it. The Shakespeare authorship page and the Shroud of Turin page or Global Warming vs. Sckeptics are scenes of constant conflict and are packed with unreliable or inaccurate information.
Arguably, this can be seen as democracy at work. I personally think this is pure and intractable stupidity at work and no matter how much high your ideals are, it simply doesn't work. Knowledge is a beast that needs discipline, hard work and a lot of sweat to be tamed.
In talking with a collegue, I coined the term "wikiology" to express the myth and the ideology behind the wiki project. If you are keen to know more, I strongly recommend what Nicholas Carr wrote about the death and burial of Wikipedia.

Non-Technical IT's Bookshelf, Part I

Here is the first in an intermittent series of posts on some recommended reading for those interested in the social impact of IT and other related issues.
I will not attempt to be exhaustive, but will focus on works which are in some way particularly noteworthy or useful. From time to time, I will post reading recommendations vis-à-vis specific subject areas like cloud computing, project management, business intelligence, etc.

Let's start with a classic:

Being digital, Nicholas Negroponte
I recently re-read it and I found some interesting intuitions that I didn't spot in the first reading. Over the years, the author has developed a techno-utopian tendency that makes the whole lot uninteresting. The book is worth reading, though.

On the other side of the spectrum, the works of Nicholas Carr put a great emphasis on the shift in computing. The main idea is that computing is becoming a commodity. Buy and read the following:

Does IT matter?
The big switch - Rewiring the world, from Edison to Google

His latest is a penetrating analysis of the effect of the Net on our brain and behaviour. I will post the review of the book shortly. In the meantime, just get it shipped.

The shallows - What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains

Jonathan Zittrain has written an interesting book about the future of internet. Don't expect it to be conventional. It offers a set of different perspectives that can sound a bit heretical for most of the folk out there.

The future of internet and how to stop it

The following two books are very thorough and with a lot of insights. If you are serious about your profession, find the time to read them.

A History of Communications: Media and Society from the Evolution of Speech to the Internet, Marshall T. Poe

The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires, Tim Wu

Index Thomisticus

It was a pleasure for me to have met father Roberto Busa S.J., back in 2000. He is the kind of man who silently introduces new trigger-off ideas that bring about change in our daily life.
His “hobbyhorse” was a systematic analysis of Saint Thomas Aquinas’ language structure – lemmatization - which he delivered in 56 volumes, now available in CDROM, DVD and on the net. Crucially, he met with Thomas Watson Sr. in 1949 and persuaded him to sponsor the project.
Apparently, this may seem a very elitist and academic achievement. Far from that. With no exaggeration, he is considered the pioneer of linguistic and literary analysis. The most mundane version of linguistic analysis is the hypertext that allows multi-dimensional navigation through texts and images.
We just take for granted the usefulness of the Internet but often we are forgetful of those who contributed – though unwittingly – to its realization.
Hats off to this humble and nonagenarian priest who deserves our attention and respect.

A light decision-making strategy

General

• I firmly believe that the majority of problems are soluble. This gives me enough motivation to persist and avoid cutting corners
• A problem should not be a source of stress – it is a challenge. When pondering over a problem it is important to balance out your efforts with something else. Stress is definitely the number one enemy of problem solving.
• Change the point of view. Just try to walk in the shoes of other people directly or indirectly affected by the issue. This will allow you to explore new angles and help gain a broader picture
• Relax. The world is not going to collapse tomorrow. Our mind benefits from dealing with a variety of things

 Technique

•  Analysis and Synthesis. Decompose the problem in logical constituents would provide a clear picture of all the elements to be analysed as well as their correlation. During the decision making process, would encourage deep exploration about all the facets of the problem. In order to reach a conclusion, and possibly a solution, it is necessary to complement the analysis with a “re-combination” of the essential elements in a way to promote a clear and coherent “whole” that would be the starting point to generate solutions
• Talk it out. That’s an easy tip. In most cases, trying to explain the problem to an “agnostic”, forces you to surface assumptions and hidden facets that would pass unnoticed otherwise.

Smoke and mirrors

Imposing an unfair no-frills cigarette packets is a typical Comminist measure to threaten your freedom and weaken the economy.
Rudd and his acolytes have learnt nothing from history.
I trust Australia, I do believe this nanny government will be thrown out of the window in November.