Taking stock of technology
At the recent Harvard IT Summit, Anne Margulies, vice president and University chief information officer, mentioned how Harvard had been at the forefront of information technology since its inception, even to the point of naming the burgeoning field. Quoting from a then-futuristic piece titled “Management in the 1980s” in a 1958 issue of the Harvard Business Review, Margulies noted that the article declared, “We shall call it ‘information technology.’” “Our field didn’t even have a name until Harvard gave it one just 55 years ago,” Margulies told a crowd of about 1,000 in Sanders Theatre on June 6. “Since then, it has been ever-changing, incredibly rapidly, and increasingly important to everything we do … And as a result, we have some of the most exciting, challenging, and rewarding jobs on the planet.” The summit’s keynote speaker was Jonathan Zittrain, professor at Harvard Law School, Harvard Kennedy School, and the School of Engineering...