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John Gehl Collection

  • An Interview with Dr. Yi Pan of Georgia State University
    Ubiquity is proud to publish this inspirational interview, which starts with a discussion of the creation of the computer science department at Georgia State University, and concludes with the heroic efforts an impoverished student from Tsinghua University in China overcame many obstacles to rise to a significant position at Georgia. The interviewee is Yi Pan, Chair and Professor of Georgia State University's computer science department, who provided us with these inspirational reflections on computer science, academic success, and true success. The interview was conducted by Ubiquity editor-in-chief John Gehl. ...
  • An Interview with Peter Huber: Why 99.9 Percent Is Not Good Enough
    In the opening days of 2009, people are looking for the new President Obama to restore domestic and international confidence and help us find our way out of a dark recession. Electric power generation and distribution is a key part of a new direction. Can we produce enough of it to reduce our oil usage? Can electric cars become reliable and cover enough distance on a single charge? Can its availability be increased, especially since critical services in transportation, banking, computing and many other sectors can be shut down by power grid failures? In April 2000, Ubiquity Editor John Gehl spoke with energy expert Peter Huber about these issues. Huber's comments about the needs of the power grid were prophetic. We gladly bring them to you now in the hope that they will help you understand the power challenges ahead. --Peter Denning, Ubiquity Editor ...
  • An Interview with Randy Pausch: Immersed in the Future: On the Future of Education
    Before he became ill, Randy Pausch spoke with Ubiquity Editor John Gehl in 2005. The declining enrollments in computer science were already very much on his mind. At that time, they were down 23 percent. Pausch called this a "huge problem". He noted that, even for those committed to teaching programming from the outset, kids programming in Alice were far more engaged than those trying to find Fibonacci numbers. The enrollments have since declined another 25 percent and the problem is even "huger" than before. Randy's ideas about what turns kids on are even more important today. --Peter Denning, Editor ...
  • An Interview with Frans Johansson: The Medici Effect
    In this time of recession, innovation has jumped to the fore in many people's minds. How can we create new value through innovations and pull our individual companies out of the doldrums? In 2004, Frans Johansson published his book, The Medici Effect, in which he discussed how crossing community boundaries leads to innovations, and he said that the most effective way to create the crossing is to mix people from the communities in a common setting. John Gehl spoke with Johansson shortly after the book was published. Johansson's words are worth thinking about now as we reflect on what we all must do next. ...
  • Whatever happened to cybernetics?
    Has the discipline of cybernetics been unable to recognize and respond to appropriate "midcourse corrections" and in the process had its destiny imposed by external "turning points"? (A mid-course correction is an endogenously determined action as in the classical "sense-processact" sequence, whereas a turning point is simply a reaction to that which is exogenously imposed; i.e., "being overcome by events." ...