The impact of professionalization efforts on the computer manager (Panel)

The computer specialist has changed drastically in the last two decades. With the initial installation of computers people were recruited from many walks of life to work with this new technology. There was little educational opportunities except courses by hardware manufacturers and technical manuals. The initial group therefore had to learn much by trial and error and there was emphasis on communications between specialists for the purpose of sharing experience. Slowly an organized body of knowledge has been emergiing so that courses, both formal and informal, may be offered in many computer techniques. Curriculums for training computer specialists have been developed so that today past-high school education leading to the degrees of Associate, Bachelor, Master, and Doctor can be earned in such fields as computer science, management information systems, data processing information science and others. Another force in the development of computer specialists has been the professional societies. While comparatively few actually belong to these organizations it is reasonable to state that their influence has been greater than only the numbers of members. Attendance at meetings where technical data is exchanged has been high. Readership of publications is also high. The importance of these non academic information exchanges can not be overlooked or underestimated.