Newsletter Volume 27 Issue 12, Dec 2015
From The Editor
Our December 2015 Issue brings updates on some of our earlier 2015 articles, including further lessons learned.
“Civil discussion can be challenging with controversial topics such as gender bias. But, to flourish, the science needs the debate.” Our earlier articles about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) were from research funding, gender bias and outright sexist points of view. Now an October 13, 2015 article by David Miller in The Conversation highlights some interesting new findings. See below, Unexpected New Findings on STEM Gender Bias
“ The great majority of entrepreneurs (between 75 and 90%) fail.” The Australian Government’s innovation package comes under scrutiny in a December 9 2015 article in The Conversation. The author questions the wisdom of make it easier for companies to fail and gives advice on how to target potential entrepreneurs, see extract below, ‘Fail early, fail often’ mantra forgets entrepreneurs fail to learn. Maybe they should check out the Arizona State University’s Formula for predicting innovation we wrote about in our February issue.
“Testing is an infinite process of comparing the invisible to the ambiguous in order to avoid the unthinkable happening to the anonymous.” – James Bach. Our original series of articles on the software testing debate began back in October 2013 with Software Testing Debate Becomes Open Warfare. Another outbreak occurred in September 2014, ostensibly about a new Software Testing Standard but inMore Software Testing Warfare we discussed the deeper issues underlying the debate. Now in August and November 2015 we have further some new insights from the differing parties. See below, The Software Testing Debate Revisited.
“In the clips of people lying, the researchers found common behaviors:” A 10 December 2015 Science Daily article based on materials provided by University of Michigan describes how machine-learning techniques were used to build unique lie-detecting software. The prototype considers the speaker’s words and gestures and has spotted some common tells which are listed. Yes, some handy tips here for spotting fibs or for avoiding detection. See extract below, “Lie-detecting software uses real court case data.”
Current Issue
Articles in the current Issue cover:
Unexpected New Findings on STEM Gender Bias
“Both experimental and real-world data typically show little to no gender bias in peer review. However, notable exceptions are sometimes found.”
‘Fail early, fail often’ mantra forgets entrepreneurs fail to learn.
“ in the great majority of cases, entrepreneurs are actually what Paul Nightingale has called MUPPETs – marginal, undersized, poorly performing enterprises. “
The Software Testing Debate Revisited
“Detailed monitoring has become a standard operations practice – but is it making an impact in the product development cycle.”
“Lie-detecting software uses real court case data.”
“ When it used input from both the speaker’s words and gestures, it was 75 percent accurate in identifying who was lying. That’s much better than humans, who did just better than a coin-flip. ”
Events
“The World’s most successful Awards Program”
Consensus (www.consensus.com.au) runs a series of Awards Programs that identify the most innovative technology designed and developed in Australia (and some in New Zealand ). Over 400 evaluations of innovation have been conducted by the 130 Judges since the Awards were started in 2000. Recent independent analysis of the Winners of the Awards shows that 9 out of 10 (90%) of the Winners of Consensus Awards have gone on to perform exceptionally well internationally. The same research showed that across the board, the companies have enjoyed over 1200% increase in sales or value since they have won Awards.
Based upon these achievements, Consensus can truly claim to be the World’s Most Successful Awards Program. A Consensus Showcase in early March 2016 will profile over 100 CEOs of previous winners. The value of the companies that will be present is in excess of $8 Billion. Assistant Minister for Innovation Wyatt Roy has been invited to present the Consensus Awards at the same event, consisting of the Consensus Software Awards, Consensus GreenTech Awards, Consensus Innovation Awards, Consensus Student Innovation Awards, Consensus IT Professional Awards, Consensus IT Writers Awards and the BigInsights BigData Innovation Awards. For more information please email contact@consensus.com.au
Quotes
Quote of the Day
“It is impossible to work in information technology without also engaging in social engineering.” – Jaron Lanier
Quote from Yesteryear
“Home computers are being called upon to perform many new functions, including the consumption of homework formerly eaten by the dog.” – Doug Larson
Wishing all our readers a happy Christmas and success 2016.
Ted Smillie
QESP Chairman