[lobbying-org] Re: CST Part II - May 1 Official Opening - Invitation

[Matthew Byng-Maddick]

On Mon, Apr 22, 2002 at 05:52:36PM +0100, Mark Seaborn wrote:
> I don't know about everyone else on this list, but I'm disgusted that
> they named the building after Bill Gates, a man whose contribution to
> Computer Science has been negative.

On the other hand, his contribution to the Cambridge Computer Science
Dept has been rather positive.

> I suggest that we protest about how the building has been named at the
> official opening -- about how Gates has been able to buy the name, buy
> influence, buy credibility (by association with the university) and
> buy out academic integrity (whether consciously or not, those in the
> Computer Lab will find it harder to criticise those who are paying
> them), and protest that the students have had no say in the matter.

How many management students had a say in the naming of the Judge Institute
of Management Studies championed (what a managementy word) in the last CAM.

I am more concerned about the latter of those claims especially in light of
the fact that Roger Needham, a respected researcher in computer security has
already testified about how the breakup of Microsoft will reduce security in
Microsoft systems. This, to me, appears to compromise academic integrity,
but Roger Needham is actually a Microsoft employee these days. This is not
true, however, for a large proportion of the CL, and for them, there isn't
the potential conflict of interest that we see in Dr. Needham's case.

> Who's interested in this?  Would anyone like to meet up to organise a
> protest?

Personally, though this is nothing to do with me, I think this is unwise.

Pick your battles. This is, IMO, not one that's worth fighting.

MBM

-- 
Matthew Byng-Maddick         <mbm@colondot.net>           http://colondot.net/