Team A: A group of young computer professionals who feel that computer
scientists should be a self-governing, self-certifying body like engineers,
doctors, and lawyers, recognized in law. They are worried that standards will be
imposed on them by ignorant legislators, and that the proliferation of
hastily-written, flawed software will bring the whole profession into disrepute.
Team B: A group of established computer scientists, many of whom came to the
field from other disciplines, such as physics or English. They believe that
regulating programmers would be like regulating speaking or writing, that
globalization dooms any local efforts at regulation, and that the self-governing
bodies mentioned above merely perpetuate privilege and exclusion
Last updated Jan. 02, 2003.