Category Archives: Politics

Friday 30th September 2016

Turing Court Files on Display

Both local interest and time-critical, this one …

Historic court files revealing the details of World War Two enigma codebreaker Alan Turing’s convictions for homosexual behaviour are to go on public display for the very first time.

http://chesterpride.co.uk/turing-display/

The story of Alan Turing’s vital contribution to the Allied campaign during World War Two was brought to life in the film, Oscar-winning The Imitation Game. And now, the record of what followed in Cheshire’s courts is available for public viewing.

Leave a comment | tags: Alan Turing, Legal, Prosecution | posted in Politics

Thursday 15th September 2016

Technocapitalism

By Vic Grout

We could be well-advised to take note of this word. We may be hearing a lot more of it …

Actually, in truth, we’ve already used it a few times before in this blog but perhaps now might be a good time to have a closer look at what it is and what it might mean?

It’s always dodgy making claims like this but the term technocapitalism was probably effectively coined by Professor Luis Suarez-Villa in Technocapitalism: A Critical Perspective on Technological Innovation and Corporatism (2009) and developed further in Globalization and Technocapitalism: The Political Economy of Corporate Power and Technological Domination (2012). [Yes, it may have been used before this, but it gets very hard to track these things down accurately.]

8 Comments | tags: Automation, Capitalism, Creativity, Emerging technologies, Technology corporations, Wealth distribution | posted in Industry, Politics

Friday 8th July 2016

Shadbolt Working Groups Set Up

By Vic Grout

The UK Council of Professors and Heads of Computing (CPHC) has formed four working groups in response to recommendations from the recent Shadbolt Report and is now looking for experienced members to join them

The independent review led by Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt, published on 16th May 2016, discussed accreditation arrangements for computer science degrees to ensure that they continue to be fit for the future. It focused on the purpose and role of accreditation and how the system can support the skills requirements of employers and improve graduate employability.

Four of the report’s ten recommendations identified particular roles for CPHC, leading to the establishment of the four working groups below …

Leave a comment | tags: Council of Professors and Heads of Computing, CPHC Working Groups, CS Graduate Employability, Nigel Shadbolt | posted in Academia, Computer Science, Computing, Education, Industry, Politics

Thursday 16th June 2016

Shadbolt and Wakeham

By Vic Grout

Both the Shadbolt and Wakeham reports on CS and STEM Graduate Employability have now been published and, as predicted, they largely don’t say what the government was hoping they would.

Both reports point to the need to improve the quality of the data available, greater cooperation between all parties and a closer look at programme accreditation. Nowhere is to be found the university-bashing the reports’ commissioners probably expected. The full text for each report is available from the following links:

Click to access ind-16-5-shadbolt-review-computer-science-graduate-employability.pdf

Click to access ind-16-6-wakeham-review-stem-graduate-employability.pdf

1 Comment | tags: CS Graduate Employability, Nigel Shadbolt, STEM employability, William Wakeham | posted in Academia, Computer Science, Computing, Education, Engineering, Industry, Politics, Science