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Re: Any experiences with development co-operation?
Subject:Re: Any experiences with development co-operation? From:Peter Neilson <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net> To:Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com> Date:Sat, 29 Nov 2008 20:59:01 -0500
Ned Bedinger wrote in part:
>
> In a development project such as you describe, there are social and
> technical factors that are not usually important in a commercial
> project.
Indeed. In the early days of computers in the oil companies in the Near
East, there was much opposition to the notion that computers could be
made to work in Arabic. The opposition came not from the Americans, but
from Arab programmers and data-entry personnel. They contended,
"Computers work in English, and I learned English so I could do my
computer job. If the computers were to work in Arabic, then *anybody*
could do my job!" Those working stateside on the project to make
computers Arabic-friendly hadn't seen that problem coming at all!
At a similar early tribal time, there were very many US business
executives who jumped on the idea of electronic mail, and had to have
the latest quarter-ton terminal installed on their desks. They never
turned it on to read their mail, though, mostly because the thing never
"rang" to tell them there was a message. A few had someone whose job it
was to read the electronic mail and print it out for them. I think a few
still do!
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