[SIGCIS-Members] Software Crisis redux

[Janet Abbate]

Did anyone see the piece in the latest issue of IEEE Computer on "Software Crisis 2.0"? (April 2012, 89-91). While historians of computing have been moving away  from the idea that the "software crisis" was a real phenomenon (see, e.g., Tom Haigh's essays on this), the computer scientist who wrote this article refers to the crisis as "well-documented" and "confirmed." Not only that, he claims there is a new software crisis upon us, fueled by information overload and demands for ubiquitous computing. 

Am I right that there is a gap in perception here between practitioners and historians?

Dr. Janet Abbate
Associate Professor 
Science & Technology in Society
Virginia Tech