Gustible - under the rubric of [$_SELF]

I was privileged to be the “featured” speaker at the inaugural dinner of Cape Town’s Girl Geek Dinner Event on the 8 March, 2011. This post includes an outline of the talk, as well as invaluable “archival” publications from the prehistory of computing in South Africa.

My topic for the evening – “Working in my dream job”… a topic I could easily talk about because I undoubtedly have a job that is the envy of many a technologist and real geek.

Here’s the outline of my talk.

What were the things that made me KNOW I am a geek/nerd/techie ?

Commodore64!!!! i was utterly consumed by this machine. And I got published in what was then the premier magazine in SA! (No, two rand won’t get you the source code anymore)

And two books – each of which influenced me greatly. And each of which contributed massively to our current perceptions and expectations of “cyberculture”.

Gibson, Neuromancer

Stephenson, Snow Crash

A brief outline of my career – starting at a company called LCS (Legal Computer Systems) working with a frustrating and obnoxious version of BASIC called “thoroughbred basic“. And even while writing brain-numbing legal accounting software, I could not believe that somebody would PAY me to program the whole day long.

Since then- I worked in a number of fields: enterprise consulting, engineering, defence, tuna trading, tollroads, performance management, wood products, television, banking, insurance, retail, electricity, and THEN, finally – THE NET (where I got stuck).

The technology was just as varied: The starry eyed years: c64 basic, and simons basic. Then academic reality hit:Pascal and Turbo Pascal, followed by the harsh reality of Thouroughbred Basic, and of course Visual Basic (which I still think is one of the worst things that ever happened to computer science).The KoolAid years lasted for a while – Microsoft, microsoft, microsoft. But finallly I met THE NET, learned about open source, and became a convert to the elegance of Ubuntu.

I now work for MIH, the internet division of Naspers. And you may well ask why this is such a cool job…

Well – I am head of most talented group of techies in Naspers, and CTO of the world’s most interesting media company. As if that is not enough, the job allows me to indulge in three aspects of my life that are very important to me – traveling, technology and geekdom.

As far as travel goes – read this: I visited 9 countries in less than six months last year.

Some of the more useful things I learned through my travels:

As a Technologist I have the opportunity to attend conferences such as Singularity University’s program, and industry standard events like MWC.
I am in regular contact with the best techies in all of the countries that form part of the “emerging markets” – I get to meet inspiring and knowledgeable people, all the time.

And as a Geek – imagine being in a position where you HAVE to buy the latest gadgets to test them. And being able to work with a skilled and inspiring team of people is the cherry on the top.

A word about the future – we are living in a time where technology is advancing at a pace that is hard to comprehend.

[Update] The “Internet of Things” has risen to the level of business consciousness, and is increasingly penetrating our lives – network data traffic is predominantly Machine-to-Machine traffic. In a matter of less than four years, the phrase “Internet of things” has changed from being coined (and being treated as science fiction) to what I call “CEO speak” – at least three CEO’s of very large companies used the phrase during their presentations at MWC 2011.

Read Kevin Kelly’s “What Technology Wants” to obtain insight into the what this means. The technium is an entity that exists beyond our control. We all have a responsibility to shape and understand the future we are heading towards.

Randall Munroe comments (as ever) elegantly on the state of technology:

References:
Neuromancer – the book in which the term “cyberspace” was coined. Read ALL of Gibson if you can. And follow @GreatDismal on Twitter.
Snow Crash - the book that inspired Second Life, and predicted a future that will soon come to pass. Read ALL of Stephenson. Including the Baroque Cycle – I am still looking for someone who did, and is willing to discuss it.
What Technology Wants – a reasoned investigation of the non-human intelligence that shares our planet.