Just a song before I go, to whom it may concern

The 4^thBubble, Abstract

With the dot.com bubble gone there is a need to fill in. Before i go references my vacation from tonite .....

The 4^thBubble is a preliminary experiment in wetware/software/hardware co-thinking or if you like that better co-evolution or co-development.

Wetware: Necessary to know about. Methodologies like eXtreme programming and desparate programming contain lots of mind artifacts from sociology, biology and other wetware sciences. We need to know to be able to judge

Software: That's what we (programmers, conceptors, designers) do anyway. Virtual(?) artifacts mainly made of and structered by - for lack of a better word - symbols (meaningful, connectable, evasive entities). Largest influence for the individual and the community. Better practices pay - not necessarily by money. Really better is better.

Hardware: Necessary to know about. Our artifacts are ultimately executed on those artifacts. We have little influence on those. Or at least seem to. At least it's relevant which plattforms the majority is focusing on. Will the mobile phone become a major app platform any soon? Will the STB be relevant in the near future. How big is automotive computing? Hardware markets knowledge helps to answer those questions.

Necessarily the 4^thB contains a large perspective. Large perspective is dangerous and full of traps. With all you people out there those traps can be avoided and the benefits of lp can be harvested together.

Michael went through his workshop papers once more to find reference to the 3^rd bubble. He didn' find any. So here's a quote from his mail with reference to the probable author: die 3rd bubble habe ich auf einem System-Level Synthesis Workshop in der Toskana vor 3 Jahren aufgeschnappt. Die 3 Blasen waren: computer sciene (CS), electrical engineering (EE) und no-na-ned die neue dritte Blase systems design (SD). Ich erinnere mich dunkel, daß diese 3 Blasen Idee nicht vom Peter Sloterdijk sondern von einem der Technopäpste aus Stanford oder Berkely stammt. Entweder war's Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli (what a name!) oder einer dieser Vögel. I definitely remember him calling Sangiovanni-Vincentelli as the author.

Let's talk to systems designers if available. Mutual benefit!