Heat on the net

Communication can become very heated on the net. I remember my first experience of it years ago when a round of emails between me, Max Kelly and Ross Street spiralled, in the course of a couple of hours, in aggression. The only way out of it was to stop writing, and start again later. (We successfully maintained a seminar, with others, which began in 1970, was still active when I left Sydney in 1998, and remains today one of the principal seminars in category theory.)

I was reminded of this while thinking of the 20 year success of the Categories List. One needs to be conscious of the new mode of communication in order to produce a stable and productive group communication. I receive other lists which contain nothing but announcements of conferences and of jobs, whereas the categories list has managed to sustain mathematical discussion.

I found an interesting page about moderated academic lists. I quote one paragraph:
"One lesson I learned along the way is that the ecology of an active online community is surprisingly fragile. It can go wildly out of whack, and even self-destruct, in a very short time. I’ve seen any number of lists decline and die over the years. Some merely waste away through attrition and neglect until no one posts
to them anymore; others become mere notice boards for calls for papers and the like, without any real interaction among subscribers. A few flame out spectacularly, bursting with so many nasty, off-topic messages that all the “lurkers” unsubscribe, leaving the
disputants to fight among themselves until even they grow weary of it. Charting a middle course means achieving a high “signal-to-noise” ratio, in which the list’s content is useful enough to make it worth people’s time to stay involved."

Another thing I learnt looking around is the meaning of "internet troll". From wikipedia a quote:
"Forum trolls are users that repeatedly and deliberately breach the netiquette of an established online community, posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages to bait or excite users into responding or to test the forum rules and policies, and with that the patience of the forum staff. Their provocative behavior may potentially start flame wars or other disturbances. Responding to a troll's provocations is commonly known as 'feeding the troll' and is generally discouraged, as it can encourage their disruptive behavior."

Como newspapers

Como newspapers are up in arms about the problems of the Como seat of the University of Insubria.
We got front page coverage on the Corriere di Como, and strident articles also in the Provincia di Como.

They do not make clear that the Science Faculty of Como itself decided to close Informatica in Como months ago. An informatica course was not even presented to the Senate for consideration. The choice of the Science Faculty was instead to present Scienze Ambientale.

As a consequence informatica staff requested and were permitted to transfer to Varese (same university) to support the remaining informatica course of the University of Insubria - which lacked sufficient staff to continue otherwise. One ambientalist has been transferred from Varese to Como, and a further six from Varese will count towards the Ambientale course in Como.


Today there is a funny article in the Provincia (La Provincia di Como, 20 November 2009: Facoltà di Scienze a rischio Gli studenti corrono in aiuto) in which the reporter quotes a facebook page. The article's title translates as "Science faculty at risk: students run to the aid of the faculty". Unfortunately the reporter misread the Facebook site, the last post being in April, not November. Many of the students attached to that page were students of informatica, and Prof. Sabadini discussed fully with them at the time the actual situation. The meeting with the president mentioned in the article as occurring next week actually occurred in April.

The Provincia instead claims that the only response was from the president of the faculty who said: "... sono un calabrese coriaceo e stia tranquillo che farò di tutto perché questa facoltà, che è per qualità scientifica 'il pezzo pregiato' dell'Ateneo, non solo non sia ridimensionata ma ne esca rafforzata. ...".

The dangers of being a reporter in this electronic age! Reporters have the duty to double-check their sources. There were however such gross mistakes in the past - the present one joins classic errors like "Dewey defeats Truman".

Pietro Berra of the Provincia di Como

27th November 2009:Update I have decided not to write further on this issue except perhaps to report the final outcome. In my view the Science Faculty of Como has made serious mistakes of policy over the years, and is now in difficulty as a result. The main problem is that the faculty has not attracted sufficient students. On the closure of the informatics course the informatics staff have requested to transfer to Varese. It is the right of any staff memember to ask for a transfer from one seat to another. All the rest consists of decisions of the organs of the university and discussion which is now at the level of politicians. Basta.

Informatica at the university in Como

I have mentioned in an earlier post that, as a result of university reform, the faculty of science in Como decided to close the informatica course in Como. As a result we informatici asked to transfer to the seat in Varese (smae university - Insubria) to support the informatica course there (which has need of staff).

This caused tremendous excitement in Como, with many newspaper articles and television commentary (which I didn't see). The latest thing is that there has been a question in parliament in Rome.

We have the feeling of being a capro espiatorio (scape goat) for all the problems of the university in Como. Today there is a university senate meeting which may/will discuss the matter.

Yesterday there was a surprising development. It seems that after years of neglect of the Como informatica course we are in fact pregiati. Como, or some section of the Como establishment, wants our course to continue.

I don't think it will happen - it would require closing some course dear to the hearts of the Science faculty.

Update: Como science faculty presented to the senate the proposal to discontinue the Como infomatica course. The senate accepted this and decided to accept our transferral to Varese.
I assume that our Como degree will continue at least till current students complete, that is for two more years. I would like to record in a later post some facts about our laurea course. I think it was an excellent course and we worked hard to support it. In particular Nicoletta Sabadini made a huge effort towards its success.

Jobs for mathematics graduates

Recently I have spoken to several Italian high-school teachers. Their advice to students proceeding to university is that the important thing is to do something you like. This seems to me to be dangerous advice. It is important not to do something you don't like, if possible. However, a student must consider future job prospects in making a decision. It is no good training for non-existing positions and then demanding that the positions be created afterwards. It is not reasonable to imagine that it is trivial to change after spending three or more years learning skills in one area - this is to discount the value of education. One should realize also that educators in an area have an interest in attracting students independent of job opportunities.

Contrast the following two documents: one is the advice of the Mathematics Department, New York University; the other is a blog by a mathematics graduate:

Mathematics Department, New York University
"Career Opportunities
The study of mathematics can lead to a variety of exciting professional careers. Basic research, engineering, finance, business, and government service are among the opportunities open to those with mathematical training. Moreover, with the increasing importance of basic science and information technology, prospects for careers in the mathematical sciences are very good. Mathematical analysis and computational modeling are important for solving some of the most pressing problems of our time - new energy resources, climate change, risk management, epidemiology, to name a few. We must strive to maintain our technological edge; mathematical skills will be crucial to this effort.
Some more specific business positions include portfolio analysis, design studies, statistical analysis, computer simulation, software design and testing, and other areas of operations research. There are extensive opportunities for mathematics in finance, the actuarial fields, and economic forecasting.
Many laboratories, both government and private, maintain independent research staffs that include mathematicians. Their work often deals with the development of new technology, including research in basic physics and software development, as well as applied mathematics. Numerical simulation, such as weather and climate forecasting, depends heavily on the use of supercomputers.
Practical considerations aside, there is the pleasure of learning, applying, and creating mathematics. Real world issues pose problems that can be studied by formulating and analyzing mathematical models. In some cases applications may lead to new mathematics, and a new branch of the science is born. In other cases abstract theory finds unexpected practical purpose. Working on research problems is exciting; solving difficult problems successfully is, for many, satisfaction enough."

John Armstrong's blog
"All the evidence I see is that mathematics, in and of itself, is worthless in the current job market. It seems to have value solely as training in addition to some other primary field of study. I would love to be proven wrong, but every rejection (most without comment) that passes reinforces this hypothesis."

Update The comment by Sean Carmody that follows is interesting. When a new area which needs mathematical expertize opens there may be opportunities for people with only mathematical degrees but for a limited time. Unfortunately the advice given to new students doesn't mention the limited time, just the successes. I had a similar experience: when I finished a masters degree in mathematics in 1966 (?) I looked at job opportunities. Programming was open to anyone. Now a mathematics student without programming experience has to compete with people with years of experience for such positions.

Trouble at n-category cafe

One of the blogs I look at rather regularly is n-category cafe. A recent post Math: Folk Wisdom in an Electronic Age raises questions about the future of mathematical discussion on the web.

There seems to have developed contrasting opinions among the presenters of the blog. In brief, one group holds that blogs should be entertaining as well as informative. The other group has more serious intentions.

I think there is a place for entertaining blogs which at the same time inform. However there should be a clear separation between this level of discussion and precise scientific papers.

The danger from the entertainers' direction is that papers try to be entertaining and lose precision.

The danger from the serious bloggers is that serious-sounding blogs take the place of papers, while being pretentious but not precise.

A paper or a book is a concentrated form of knowledge which cannot be replaced by conversations. A paper or a book can be helped by the addition of informal discussion.

University reform in Italy

I have written several times, always as a foreigner trying to understand the Italian mind, about university reform. I think however I have not emphasized an important (perhaps the most important) aspect. What follows is my imperfect understanding.

Money comes the the universities for two reasons - from research applications, and from the student enrolment.

Research money is fickle and allows one to employ temporary staff. (Research staff and graduate students are of course almost essential for certain areas of research.)

Student money is hard, and allows one to employ permanent staff. The desire to employ permanent staff in ones area seems to be a main driving force for Italian (maybe all) academics.

So what did Italian academics do in recent years? Create courses to attract students. Insubria university in Como created in Science an Informatica course and a Bene Culturale course. In Giurisprudenza the university created Scienze di Turismo and Mediazione Linguistica. These courses did attract students.

However the resulting money coming to the university from student numbers was used, not for permanent staff in the new areas, but for staff in the old areas.

With the contraction of the reform these new courses may/must close for lack of staff, with a resulting loss of a large proportion of the student numbers.

Megatrends

I learnt the word megatrend listening to a talk of Federico Faggin in Milano a few years ago. Federico Faggin has his initials on the first microprocessor ever produced (Intel 4004). He also founded Zilog with Ungermann, and designed the Z80. And other things. So perhaps he has the right to talk of megatrends.

I think one of the megatrends of the 20th and perhaps 21st century is the use of computers in almost every phase of life, in particular for communication. It is perhaps comparable to the industrial revolution, and is changing the work people do in a similarly dramatic fashion.

Universities however seem to be rather bad at adjusting to megatrends. A professional academic is happy at new and exciting developments in his/her field, but new areas are invisible.

The University of Insubria seems to be just in the process of closing a Laurea in Informatica in Como. With the reform it seems to be the only possibility acceptable to the physicists, mathematicians, chemists and ambientalists, in particular as a result of the lack of investment of the Como Faculty of Science in Informatica over a period of some years. Fortunately it is likely there will be a laurea in informatica in Varese, but with a small investment in Informatica over the years, instead of losing the course in Como, the University could have had courses in both Como and Varese.

I think the lack of investment in Informatica has been a megamistake for Como.