Andrew Dillon's got another great column on IA in the latest ASIS Bulletin, and I finally found it online... among other things he points out that the market downturn may result in job seekers having to *actually know something about IA* to get a job as an IA (woo hoo!). He also points out a bunch of universities are hopping on the IA bandwagon by putting out courses that are basically repackaged old courses "selling old wine in new bottles." He doesn't name names, but buyer beware...
"Furthermore, plans for holding an IA Summit in 2002 are underway, and I shall take this opportunity to let you know that I shall serve as chair of the program committee. If you have ideas for contributions and themes, feel free to contact me."
My request? Quit defining, start refining. I'd like to see an in-depth look at some of the points Lou raised in Bloug, as well as *heaps* of case studies on how IA's are solving problems and saving/making their companies gobs of dough.
, from oldest to newest:
That's "Quit defining", young lady.
Posted by SpellingBee @ 08/31/2001 08:37 PM pst
~~~
Actually I would say "Quit the BS", but that's only me, because I'm rude and I want to get a job in that area.
Posted by michel v @ 09/01/2001 01:49 PM pst
~~~
By the way "quit the BS" is there to replace "quit defining", it's not there to insult your words in any way (just re-read my words and got scared you might take them the wrong way).
Posted by michel v @ 09/01/2001 02:16 PM pst
~~~
I wish amateur editors would email me rather than post, so I can change the text and not have their comment look so very strange... although I should be grateful for the free editorial, no matter how patronizing. and don't worry V, I knew what you meant.
BTW, did you know amateur used to mean very skilled or expirienced, just not taking money, like amateur athletes (think olympians)? I wonder at what point in history it picked up its second meaning of not-competant.
(that should provide the editors lurking some meat to chew on...)
Posted by christina @ 09/03/2001 04:47 PM pst
~~~
From dictionary.com:
When Mrs. T.W. Atkinson remarked in her 1863 Recollections of the Tartar Steppes and their Inhabitants, “I am no amateur of these melons,” she used amateur in a sense unfamiliar to us. That sense, “a lover, an admirer,” is, however, clearly descended from the senses of the word's ultimate Latin source, amator, “lover, devoted friend, devotee, enthusiastic pursuer of an objective,” and from its Latin-derived French source, amateur, with a similar range of meanings.
First recorded in English in 1784 with the sense in which Mrs. Atkinson used it, amateur is found in 1786 with a meaning more familiar to us, “a person who engages in an art, for example, as a pastime rather than as a profession,” a sense that had already developed in French. Given the limitations of doing something as an amateur, it is not surprising that the word is soon after recorded in the disparaging sense we still use to refer to someone who lacks professional skill or ease in performance.
I also looked up "amateur" in the "QPB Dictionary of Word Origins". It pretty much repeated the same bit about coming from the Latin via the French, however, it claims that the word was first recorded in English in 1775 and was initially used to refer to sports about 25 years later. It also tells us that in the 19th century, men vied for the title of "the world's greatest amateur athlete." One of these contenders, the dictionary relates, was New Yorker Foxhall Keene, the man that Chicken á la King was supposedly named in honour of.
Posted by David @ 09/03/2001 07:22 PM pst
~~~
