Category Archives: Academia

Publishing into the void

Posted on February 11, 2011 by Jorge Aranda

A few days ago, Greg Wilson tweeted: When is the last time you read something in an ACM or IEEE journal that changed how you program or the tools you use? Ever? The answer is never, in my case. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Software development | 15 Comments

The thorny and the obvious

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Jorge Aranda

This discussion between Laurent Bossavit and Steve McConnell makes for very interesting reading: Bossavit critiques McConnell’s Making Software chapter on differences in programming productivity (original in French here), arguing that the studies it cites do not establish as a fact … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Software development | 23 Comments

Call for papers: CHASE 2011

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Jorge Aranda

Another call for papers—this one for the 4th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (CHASE 2011); a workshop that is co-located with ICSE and is always more interesting than the main conference itself, and for which … Continue reading →

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Call for papers: Web2SE 2011

Posted on December 14, 2010 by Jorge Aranda

I’m in the Program Committee of the 2nd International Workshop on Web 2.0 for Software Engineering. (Web2SE 2011), co-located with ICSE. Please consider submitting your work—here is the abstract of the call for papers: Social software is built around an … Continue reading →

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Ethics, activism, and research

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Jorge Aranda

For some years now, as the end of my PhD drew near and my postdoctoral work began to unfold, I have felt anxious about committing my life to research. It’s an anxiety that lurks in the back of my mind: … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Activism | 16 Comments

Research as activism?

Posted on November 26, 2010 by Jorge Aranda

Jon Pipitone asks: If there is one strand that connects any work that I do it is my desire to to be of some benefit to the world, and for that benefit to have a certain immediacy. I am concerned … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Activism | 3 Comments

Learning from strangers

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Jorge Aranda

I got a copy of “Learning from Strangers,” by Robert S. Weiss, after reading about it in Jeremy Handcock’s blog. It’s such a good book that I wanted to bang my head against a wall for not reading it before. … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Books, Recommendations | Leave a comment

My copy of Making Software

Posted on November 15, 2010 by Jorge Aranda

Last night, as I came back home from my convocation in Toronto, I found my free copies of Making Software waiting for me. The book looks great, and the list of contributors is (ahem!) fantastic. I’ll read it over the … Continue reading →

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“Making Software” is out!

Posted on November 3, 2010 by Jorge Aranda

I got some great news today: the book Making Software: What Really Works, and Why We Believe It, edited by Andy Oram and Greg Wilson, is now available. It includes a chapter I wrote on co-located vs. private-office work environments, … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Books, Software development | 3 Comments

It’s hard to coordinate and communicate effectively

Posted on September 14, 2010 by Jorge Aranda

In software projects, it’s hard to coordinate and communicate effectively. This should come as no surprise to anyone developing software for a living, yet it bears repeating because it’s one of the main motivations for adopting the Shared Understanding paradigm … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Software development | 3 Comments