Panel

A panel is basically a one and a half hour to 2 hours session in which four to six speakers - distinguished members of the scientific and/or enterprise community, briefly present different perspectives/opinions on key issues with the goal of stimulating a lively, controversial, and provocative discussion. Panelists are expected to actively debate one another and engage the audience to help broaden understanding of the technologies and issues. Two types of panels are to be considered: Research Panels, oriented to the academic community and focused on the discussion of research topics; and Industrial Panels, oriented to promote knowledge exchanges between academia and industry.

PANELS LIST

Plenary Opening Panel Session

ICSOFT & DATA 2016
Plenary Opening Panel Session

Date:Sunday July 24th, 2016
Time: 14:30 - 15:45
Immediately After Opening Session

Shouldn’t we worry that our computing profession, teaching and research will be outsourced?

The current shift of the computing paradigm from in-house computing to everything-as-a-service computing should make us re-think what to do to stay relevant as professionals, teachers and researchers. When combined with globalization, this shift from hardware/software ownership to provisioning may bring a scary thought to the younger generation that our computing profession, teaching and research can simply be outsourced, or taken over by global companies. Doesn’t this trend to computing-as-a-commodity (like water or electricity) imply that we stay relevant and keep our jobs ONLY WHEN (1) we are employed by global IT companies – service providers to the rest of the world, (2) we teach and supply teaching materials to global educators offering MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses), etc. – education aggregators to the rest of the world (2) we do research as dictated and needed by global shakers & movers of IT industry with all the confidentiality clauses and other conditions attached? Isn’t this threat even more depressing taken into consideration that – unlike water or electricity – the computing commodity is not localized; there is no need for computing “water dams and power stations” to physically exist somewhere within relatively local communities. Internet does not know borders or boundaries. Everything-as-a-service can come from anywhere and anytime. And what if it does not come; if somebody or something pulls the plug? As Arthur C. Clarke said “The future isn’t what it used to be.” Shouldn’t we worry?

Panelists:
Leszek Maciaszek, Wroclaw University of Economics, Poland and Macquarie University, Australia (in chair)
Schahram Dustdar, Vienna University of Technology, Austria
Panos Vassiliadis, University of Ioannina, Greece
Christoph Quix, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
Uwe Assmann, TU-Dresden, Germany