"Like Walmart": "waiters" and "service providers"

Vijay Salaman was for me the high point of the Thursday Incommunity event! With no Powerpoint - and for that he was complimented by witty Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid (UN) ... - Salaman talked of the IT component of the interdisciplinary projects as the "waiters" as Cathy mentioned in her blog entries or "service providers" - another term he used. He noticed how hard it was for these folks to think of themselves that way - as "these are highly educated people". Salaman also noted that there is a new generation of IT leaders being educated at the UCSD and other institutions (some of them working with HASTAC) that is more aware of this role... for which I would dare yet another definition - one of "listeners"... Knowing how and when to listen... Isn't that often the problem? I feel comfortable saying this as I am in that strange "place" - where many of us are - at the border of IT, Humanities and Arts. In that role, I often try to match expectations and realities, and translate one type of language, flexible, with considerably breadth - Humanities, Arts - into another, very unforgiving, one... Ana Boa-Ventura