[Air-l] Technical competence

[Elizabeth Van Couvering]

This comment raises I think an interesting issue, to what extent  
ought we to be familiar with computer science as Internet  
researchers?  In other words, should we know the basics of  
programming, of UNIX, of html, etc.?

My own knowledge is pretty patchy - I did two semesters of algorithms  
(in Pascal as I recall) about 15 years ago in college; I can hand- 
code a website with basic HTML and CSS but no scripting; I used to be  
able to write AppleScripts; and I can navigate up and down a unix  
system (I basically know the 'ls' command and the 'cd' command).  I  
know what a webserver does and can read log files.  And owing to my  
research I now know something about how search engines function :-)   
That's it, though -- perl and python are strangers to me, I can't  
gzip or untar things, and as for the grep commands in AtlasTi...  
well, let's just say I'm probably not using the program to its full  
extent.

Still, I know more than most of the other people I know who are  
studying new media.  But is that right?  Should I know more, should  
they know more?  Do you think there is a minimum level of technical  
competence that you need?

Elizabeth

> 2) I am a social scientist, as I (maybe wrongly) thought were most  
> of the people on this list. I am familiar with UNIX, which already  
> seems to be kind of a rarity among social scientists. Most of us  
> aren't and, I might add, shouldn't.