Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Computer Science Not a Profession!?

Professor Paul De Palma in his article "Women, Mathematics, and Computing" stated, "[Computer Science] is not a real profession."  His argument for such a statement is that there are no licensing requirements for entering the field.  There are no licensing reqirements for the men and women who wish to become business executives, journalists, and even university professors.  By Professor Palma's definition of profession, none of the previously listed positions are professions.  This makes absolutely no sense.  In fact, computer science is a better profession for not having licensing requirements for entry.  It allows for more competition in the industry, which would not be the case if there were licensing requirements.  Open entry to this profession facilitates the continual advancement of computer science.

2 comments:

  1. I disagree with the statement that computer science is a better profession for not having licensing requirements. Licensing could establish a core base of knowledge required for people entering the field, which could lead to better educated programmers and computer scientists. Many programmers get jobs without professional education and end up writing lousy software because they have never been educated on principles of code design.

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