ἀ–λήθεια — the state of being evident
“No one ever got fired for signing up for another year’s subscription to BlackBoard,” AKMA observes in a post separating the faster horses of academic technology from the plodding oxen of old edu-ware.
The idea that “no one ever got fired for buying” retro-tech underscores that sweet dichotomy—us and them, we who look forward and ride hard ahead of the herd on our faster horses versus they who plod stodgily behind their oxen with cow shit on their boots. In the late 1980s, at the height of the corporate LAN/PC revolution, careers actually did stagnate and die for people who followed the risk averse furrow behind the oxen of IBM.
There was a decade or so when “we” were winning the race. But by early 2024, as the dot-com boom busted, economic hard times swung the pendulum back and corporate buyers—after a decade or more of hard riding—were again following the risk averse strategies of buying only from the big boys. Not that the majority of the bureaucrats responsible for the infotech strategies and architectures in large organizations had ever really unyoked the oxen and taken a ride on the faster horses of emerging tech. They hadn’t, because risk aversion is often the stock in trade of those who till the fields of IT in the world of large institutions, whether they represent universities, government, or corporations.
We know that Henry the K. was right when he said, “There is no politics quite as vicious as academic politics because in academia there is so little at stake!” When the game of “Budget, budget, who’s got the budget?” is played, the gloves come off. Mere deans, department chairs, and lowly professors often have a feeling of powerlessness when the IT professionals, the Directors of Instructional Technology and Library Technology, gather with mainframe geeks from the Vice Chancellor-Administration’s office to direct the university’s development of electronic instructional resources. Many of these people belong to EDUCAUSE—a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. But if you’ve read this far you knew that.
EDUCAUSE is the community for the academics to visit for a seat at the table. They’re totally hip to the most current pedagogic issues and challenges in instructional technology and they would like nothing better than to advance the state of the art on their campus. Unfortunately, actual teachers are thin on ground in their membership.
I think that dedicated teaching professionals and emerging tech leaders, like AKMA, can benefit from exploring EDUCAUSE. They’re on twitter. What better place to put a toe in the water, a finger in the wind?
6 Comments
You got me, Frank; I should have checked out EDUCAUSE before. My only excuse, feeble as it is, involves an early exposure to a highly commercial, highly proprietary-software-focused conference whose name reminded me of EDUCAUSE. I repent, and will amen my ways.
Amen, father.
re: Aletheia
WHOA!
“we who look forward and ride hard ahead of the herd on our faster horses.”
Faster Horses are mostly only good for going faster than you oughta be going – way too fast to notice the ground squirrel holes under your feet or the branches hanging over your head.
Surely you recall that in those days when we worked on new technology, we called it “working on the BLEEDING EDGE.” A task for which only stress junkies need apply.
“they who plod stodgily behind their oxen with cow shit on their boots.”
At least the ox and cart provides space for the baggage. Once we reach a certain age, we’ve got baggage. It’s gonna come with us anyway. Might as well carry it conveniently. And, to be fair to our bovine friends, Cow poo on one’s boots smells a darn sight better
than dog poo.
IMHO, Once communication bandwidth reaches a certain level, any more speed is just jitter. A picture (or video) is only worth a 1000 poorly crafted words, not those words that force a re-read for the pleasure of it because they are so fine.
Sometimes it seems to me that using new little technology building blocks (for things we maybe don’t really need) is replacing the break-set thinking that can truly advance technology.
“Not that the majority of the bureaucrats responsible for the infotech strategies and architectures in large organizations had ever really unyoked the oxen and taken a ride on the faster horses of emerging tech.”
I once met with an IT guy from one of the late lamented big Wall Street Investment houses. I didn’t much like him, so when he said “Ready Fire Aim!” I interpreted it as “Shoot from the Hip” and instantly discounted the words that followed.
T’was not until the long flight home that I thought about it and understood that his allusion was to guided missles and smart bombs where one could, actually fire the device and then allow the fine tuning of it’s aim to occur while still in flight.
I then understood that as one of those break-set thinking that actually advances technology.
For example, it is the thinking that allowed database development to move beyond the old IBM hierarchical databases which required that you know what you are going to ask of the data, BEFORE you could build the database (and, which rendered any new or changing requirement way too expensive to implement). Whereas, relational databases created enormously more powerful search technology as one could ask it anything and it could still find the data.
Instead of aiming before you built the database, now you could fire that sucker up and then aim it at what you wanted to know.
I had more respect for that Investment house IT guy when I understood what he was actually driving at. I still didn’t like him, but I do still remember the conversation. He understood more about what drives new technology than many who acquire the latest gizmo first.
Of course, data management is a whole ‘nother thing nowadays, and I long ago gave up the stress junkie lifestyle so have become quite ignorant about it, except to be awed by Google.
I do however, like your recent Western allusions (Whoa, oxen, horses). That cow dog you’ve got must be a good influence. And, am so glad to be finding new stuff again when I check your blog.
Hi Betty Jo!
I hope you had a chance to follow the link to the “Faster Horses” essay by Chris Locke at Entropy Gradient Reversals. I had my tongue firmly in cheek when building the oxen versus racehorse metaphor.
“Ready, Fire, Aim” is context dependent, I think. Sometimes it means that thing about wire guided missiles, but more commonly it’s a term of opprobrium describing a shoot from the hip attitude.
“Predictive analytics” and “protein informatics” are a couple of areas I’d like to be current with. Here’s a fun little blog posting about what it takes to create a 1.8 Exabyte data center (including the hint to locate in The Dalles for cheap Columbia River hydropower).
Those Google guys are brilliant for sure.
Hi Frank,
Yes, I did enjoy the “faster horses” tale you referenced.
If that guy didn’t get his consulting job with the shareware clients,
he might apply for one designing adverts for the American Auto Industry.
No, wait, too late.
Re the data center blog: did I miss it or did the commenters forget the UPS battery banks needed for the Exabytes? Maybe they are planning to put in a huge diesel generator. That sucker will need some noteable space just for itself (not to mention a hole in the wall so the diesel truck can back in for filling it).
I’ll look into Predictive Analytics and Protein Informatics you mentioned. Thanks for the reference. Should be good entertainment as I recover from upcoming shoulder surgery. (It’s those big hay bales that did it to me, I’m sure of it.) The 60 lb bales our old baler makes are so easy to pick up and move. The modern 125 lb bales are a real challenge to wrassle around. What were they thinking when they started making them so big?
Faster Horses I’m betting.
Sorry to hear about your shoulder problem, Betty Jo. Those huge rectangular bales were designed for the modern agribiz entrepreneur equipped with fork lifts and such. They’re exceeded in silliness only by the huge round bales you see these days out in the hay fields. Whenever I see one of those round bales I wonder, “How’s a cow supposed to get a square meal?”