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Uneasy bedfellows: IT directors and academics

By Felicity Ussher

Published: Friday 16 June 2000

The UK's leading computer science researchers are predicting the next 20 years will be all about protecting users from technology. It's not a simple, amusing reversal of fortunes - it's a recognition that the market does not necessarily deliver what businesses need.

For academic researchers to admit this is no breakthrough. Their relationship with industry is a complex one and they frequently take on the role of policeman to the mass market. But a conference this week did provide an opportunity for IT directors to say what they really need.

We have grown accustomed to the notion that the market will provide. Technology suppliers have become so customer-focussed in their marketing brochures that somewhere, deep down, it becomes easy to assume they have researched and defined our needs.

So why, this week, was it up to academics to propose the first research into whether people want interactive television? Why did they have to demand funding into technology to protect people against the possible exploitation of online retail agents?

Technology must have a goal beyond technology, and not provide what is not needed. That was the message, and it is one which many IT directors will support.

Some academics even questioned the assumption that information processing is the only path for the computing revolution. What about more lateral processes: how could businesses use them?

Much of this work will not see the light of day for many years. But now is the time for end-users to get involved. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council - at http://www.epsrc.ac.uk - which hosted this week's event, welcomes contact with industry, and academics often approach businesses for their feedback.

Let's make this a movement and build up some formal partnerships. The sooner IT directors realise the universities are their friends, the sooner that pressure can be put on IT suppliers to build an industry that helps, not hinders, their work.