Curriculum recommendations for graduate professional programs in information systems
Communications of the ACM
Data Processing Technology and Economics
Data Processing Technology and Economics
The M.S. program in computer science
SIGCSE '79 Proceedings of the tenth SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
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Universities are often criticized for being too academic—too far removed from society's real problems. One reason for this remoteness is the academic preoccupation with analysis, despite the fact that the solution to many practical problems requires synthesis or invention. Another reason—and this is the one I want to discuss—is that faculties in science and engineering by and large are interested in the science of technology, and devote little or no time to teaching the economics of technology. The problem is a general one and I believe it deserves attention by all scientific and engineering faculties of the university (?). It is particularly important in the computer field, where growth and change are the norm, and where we all must be careful, in making decisions, to take into account trends and directions in the economics of data processing. I propose a course entitled “Data Processing Technology and Economics” as a solution to the problems described above, and in this paper I will describe the course, which is based on a textbook I have been preparing for the past several years. The course has been taught twice: at Harvard University in the Fall Semester 1974-1975; and at the University of Sydney, in Australia, in the Michaelmas Term, ]975. However, before describing the course in detail, I would like to explain, with the help of some examples, why I believe this subject is important to the student of Computer Science.