Hello FRIAM community, My name is dave west. Some relevant factoids about me: My undergraduate education was in Asian Philosophy (mostly Buddhism and Taoism and their intersection) and Mysticism at Macalester College in St. Paul Minn. I have been a professional software developer since 1968 and an academic since 1988. Returned to school in 1985 at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, earned MA in cultural anthropology, MS in computer science, and a Ph.D. in Anthropology (de facto cognitive science with a dissertation committee of three anthropologists, two computer scientists, psychologist, and linguist). First use of complexity ideas was in my doctoral dissertation -1988 - where I was proposing a model of cognition called vTAO (virtual Topographic Adaptive Organism). First publication was in AI Magazine (1989), a two part article on metaphors of mind. Became an academic at University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, MN - not Virgin Islands alas) advanced to Professor, move to NM to start new program in IT at New Mexico Highlands (just in time for them to go bankrupt and deal with a string of interim presidents). Finally succeeded in starting a radically different software degree only to have Manny Aragon arbitrarily cancel it in order to get rid of "carpetbagger faculty." Currently working with the College of Santa Fe to create fundamentally (some of the radical differences at Highlands will wait a few years at CSF) different program in software development, including BA degree in software dev, MBA in software dev (will eventually be an MFA), and a MBA in technology transfer and innovation management. Book published, Object Thinking, by Microsoft Press Professional, 2004 Book underway, Developing Systems, (reinventing software development using complexity metaphors if not theory, agility, and art)
have attended two Friday AM meetings about two weeks ago, will be back again next week. davew ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
