Newsletter Volume 26 Issue 10, Oct 2014
ACOSM 2014
The Australian Conference on Software Management
Earn 8 PDU’s or CP Hrs
Thursday, November 27, 2014 – 9am – 6pm
NICTA, Australian Technology Park
Will the Cloud Take Your Job Too?
Traditional internal IT Service Management activities are now being handled by external cloud providers. We have seen Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, Software as a Service and now IT as a Service. Is there anything left for the IT Department and the CIO? The answer is that their skills will be needed more than ever but in a different context. Find out more at ACOSM14, which features practical advice from industry experts and a Forum on the Future of the Internal IT Department and the CIO.
Are You a Woman in ICT?
Is unconscious bias keeping you underpaid and undervalued? What can you do about it? ACOSM14 features advice from women in leadership roles and a Forum on Women in ICT/ Women in Leadership.
Who Will Benefit from ACOSM?
This Conference is a must for anyone involved in ICT management in both the private and public sector. It is about day to day issues affecting ICT management and staff. It is also about ICT’s current and growing role in fostering economic growth and social equality, with implications not only for social welfare and productivity but more broadly for political and economic outcomes.
Questions now being asked by industry leaders, management and staff include:
- Is there still a future in the ICT industry for the traditional Internal IT Department and the CIO?
- Will ITaaS be “the last nail in ITIL’s coffin”?
- Can new metrics show the way to removing systemic ICT industry barriers to progress?
- Why is the ICT industry ignoring opportunities for growth, productivity and competitive advantage?
- What are the new Project Manager skills, not taught in traditional project management training ?
- Is unconscious bias still clouding perceptions about women in ICT and in leadership?
The 2014 Australian Conference on Software Management will address these questions and others, with talks and discussion forums featuring distinguished ICT industry leaders, practitioners and educators. Take this chance to network and to benefit from a range of topical, practical and sometimes controversial advice for organisations large and small.
From The Editor
“Is media multitasking inefficient? Are women better at it? Does it shrink your brain? New research gives surprising answers.”
It seems we may have to think again on some “common knowledge”, see below Strange Findings on Media Multitaskers.
“traditional lecture courses drive steep attitudinal declines toward learning and problem solving”
An August 4, 2014 ScienceDaily article discusses the success of active-learning in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education. The focus is on Physics but the message is relevant for ICT education, including the evidence that active-learning eliminates what is typically a big gender gap in attitudinal declines in traditional introductory courses. See below, ‘I can’t figure out how to do this!’: Active-learning techniques effective for large scale classes?.
“The current state – of – the – art of systems engineering is inadequate to provide the scientific foundations needed to develop the systems of the future.”
The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has just released the NIST Three – Year Programmatic Plan, FY2014-2016, which has some areas of particular interest to ICT management, staff and business stakeholders, see below, ICT Metrics: NIST’s New Measurement Science Plan.
Current Issue
Articles in the current Issue cover:
Strange Findings on Media Multitaskers
“Our study was the first to reveal links between media multitasking and brain structure”
‘I can’t figure out how to do this!’: Active-learning techniques effective for large scale classes?
“A comprehensive three-year evaluation suggests that Active Physics consistently produces more proficient students with better attitudes toward learning than the lecture courses it is replacing”
ICT Metrics: NIST’s New Measurement Science Plan
“The Plan gives examples of NIST’s activities for developing frameworks, standards, and metrics”