Inspirational IT

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Inspirational IT

• Public Engagement a Global Challenge
• Professor Nigel Shadbolt
• BCS President

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BCS_at_ nearly 50

• Record membership
• Sound finances
• New products and services
• Increasing numbers of candidates taking our exams
• Leading a successful Professionalism Programme
• Raising our Learned Society Profile

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BCS_at_ nearly 50

• Created a dynamic Thought Leadership Programme
• Expanding our work with business, government and
  academia
• Improving our infrastructure - physical and
  digital
• 52 Specialist Groups
• 6 Forums
• 55 Branches

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And yet

• We face a real problem
• Whilst IT is a vital part of society and culture
• IT cannot flourish without support of wider
  community
• This requires public engagement
• We have not been effective here

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We are not unique

• Science, Engineering and Technology have changed
  the world
• Scientists, engineers and technologists feel
  unappreciated and undervalued
• In our discipline the problem is, if anything,
  even worse

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The public image is

• A poor one
• Bored at school
• A world of geeks and nerds
• Profession associated with IT failures
• Falling numbers at University
• This varies from country to country interesting
  differences in emerging economies

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Reasons advanced include

• The public doesnt care
• The IT school curriculum
• The media
• The technology
• Us

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Reality check

• Public appetite for SET exists
• Urgent need to review IT in schools
• We need to engage with the media
• We are in possession of inspirational technology
• The challenge lies with us

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What can we do?

• Defy expectations
• Understand the nature of the problem
• Confront the challenge of our subject in schools
• Foster media engagement
• Evangelise computational thinking
• Embrace the breadth and variety of our discipline

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How do we do it?

• Invest time, effort, energy and enthusiasm
• Top down and bottom up
• BCS has appointed a Public Engagement Manager
• Change Public Opinion
• Reach the opinion formers
• Engage more aggressively with mainstream media
• Select targets
• Find the issues, the debates, future
  possibilities that affect us
• Work at all levels exploit our connections and
  networks

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The emerging approach

• Using the 50th as a platform to engage
• Focus on the future externally, while celebrating
  the past achievements
• Select areas that can be made accessible,
  interesting and engaging to wide and various
  audiences
• Contextualise breakthroughs

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Example activities

• Crisis in Computing
• Celebrating the future through the past
• Inspirational role models
• The power of computational thinking
• The caring digital society

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Crisis in Computing

• Significant downturn in students entering
  computing/computer science degrees
• Government does not yet fully recognise the
  problem
• Media strategy
• Pallab Gosh
• Edelman
• Timing
• Week after I became President interview became
  the most viewed and emailed on the BBC Online
• And then you have to deal with the consequences

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Inspirational Role Models

• Recruit those who have made a difference
• Look for the next generation
• Cultivate our own skills
• Working with other Professional Bodies and
  Learned Societies

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Celebrating the Future though the Past

• UK has a somewhat unique tradition in this regard
• Illustrates both strengths and weaknesses
• The Bletchley Park Story
• Codes and Cyphers Heritage Trust
• Computer Conservation SG
• Bombe
• Colossus
• BCS support Cypher Challenge

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Computational Thinking A revolutionary paradigm

• A large part of modern STEM is all about
  computational models, representations,
  abstractions
• But it goes wider into social sciences and
  humanities
• This is a well kept secret and we need let it
  out...

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The Caring Digital Society

• Issues of societal interest
• e.g. Privacy - surveillance and sousveillance
• Putting forward the benefits and not always
  focusing on the disbenefits
• e.g. Improved citizen services
• Informed dialogue is essential
• e.g. HFA and GM Crops

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This is not just a BCS problem ...

• Is it...?

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