{"id":1858,"date":"2021-03-19T08:44:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-19T08:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/?p=1858"},"modified":"2022-10-10T16:26:55","modified_gmt":"2022-10-10T15:26:55","slug":"this-week-in-it-march-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/?p=1858","title":{"rendered":"The Week in IT news: Agile turns 20, the Web 30, and light-based computing moves ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n<p><em>Here&#8217;s what happened this week in IT news.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Full podcast episode:<\/p>\n<p>?  <a class=\"has-text-color\" href=\"https:\/\/visit.mindquest.io\/mission-control-center-podcast?utm_source=medium&#038;utm_medium=b_post&#038;utm_campaign=Podcast_lp\" target=\"_blank\">Subscribe to the podcast<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"has-text-color\" href=\"https:\/\/mindquest.io\/en\/blog\" target=\"_blank\">Check out more of our interviews from our podcast episodes.<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n<h2>News story #1: <strong>Agile after 2<\/strong>0 years<\/h2>\n<p>With the manifesto for Agile software<br \/>\ndevelopment turning 20 this year, industry insiders are looking back at the<br \/>\nphilosophy&#8217;s two decades of existence to see how deeply embedded it actually is<br \/>\namong the world&#8217;s businesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While<br \/>\nmost companies have fully bought into the idea of Agile and are on board with<br \/>\nits values and principles, the term &#8220;agile&#8221; is still a buzzword<br \/>\nrather than a true practice in many cases.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>According<br \/>\nto experts, organisations often resort to Agile methodologies as a simple<br \/>\nsolution to accelerate their digital transformation projects. In doing so, they<br \/>\nfail to implement the development framework as a wholistic philosophy that ties<br \/>\nIT with business objectives.<\/p>\n<p>Automated testing and deployment and rapid feedback loops have been widely adopted by industry players, but better value stream mapping and new business-oriented performance metrics will be needed if we are to unleash the full potential of Agile. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/the-agile-manifesto-20-years-on-agility-in-software-delivery-is-still-a-work-in-progress\/\" target=\"_blank\">ZDNet<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n<h2>News story #2: <strong>Berners-Lee&#8217;s annual letter<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Just like Warren Buffett, Tim Berners-Lee<br \/>\n(a.k.a. the father of the world wide web) has made a habit out of sending an<br \/>\nannual letter reflecting on the state of the Internet world.<\/p>\n<p>Last<br \/>\nFriday, March 12th, marked the 30th anniversary of the web, and Berners-Lee,<br \/>\nwho has always been adamant about making the Internet a more inclusive medium,<br \/>\nturned his attention to universal access to the Internet, web-based<br \/>\nenvironmental initiatives and curbing online abuse. According to Berners-Lee,<br \/>\nthe pandemic has accentuated the difference between the 2.2 billion young<br \/>\npeople who lack stable Internet access and those who don&#8217;t. But it is the web&#8217;s<br \/>\nhostility towards minorities that worries him the most.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, despite his concerns regarding &#8220;the toxic Internet,&#8221; Berners-lee is optimistic about our ability to make online forums a safer place. Specifically, he points towards big social media platforms as the ones who should be implementing the changes to make that happen. The way forward, says Berners-Lee, should be building &#8220;social networks where bad things happen less.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/lifeandstyle\/2021\/mar\/15\/tim-berners-lee-we-need-social-networks-where-bad-things-happen-less\" target=\"_blank\">The Guardian<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n<h2>News story #3: <strong>Mirror-based computers<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The end the week in IT news &#8212; While <a class=\"has-text-color\" href=\"https:\/\/mindquest.io\/en\/blog\/news\/356\/brief-intro-to-quantum-computing\" target=\"_blank\">quantum computing<\/a> is the alternative to traditional computers that gets the most attention these days, it is not the only new kid in the block.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Researchers<br \/>\nare also exploring ways to make standard bit-based computation faster and more<br \/>\nefficient &#8212; and we are not talking about cramming more transistors into a<br \/>\nsilicon chip. It&#8217;s more about re-inventing the traditional transistor<br \/>\naltogether. After all, we don&#8217;t need all future computers to be quantum; faster<br \/>\ntraditional PCs should suffice for most tasks. Enter light-based computing.<\/p>\n<p>University of Cambridge researchers have discovered a way of making a material switch between glass and mirror with a short laser pulse. This type of optical switching is way faster than current computer switches &#8212; about a million times faster. It also consumes a fraction of the energy. Plus, the switch could be applied to quantum computing as well. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2021-03-window-mirror-material-paves-faster.html\" target=\"_blank\">Phys.org<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/share.ebpages.com\/subscribe-to-mcc-newsletter?utm_source=blog&amp;utm_medium=link&amp;utm_campaign=newsletter-mindquest&amp;utm_term=mid-article\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1700\" height=\"610\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1039\" src=\"https:\/\/wp.club-freelance.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/CTA-newsletter-newstand-1.png\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n<p><a class=\"has-text-color\" href=\"https:\/\/mindquest.io\/en\/signup?type=consultant\" target=\"_blank\">Join our community and find your next job or expert in IT<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s what happened this week in IT news. Full podcast episode: ? Subscribe to the podcast Check out more of our interviews from our podcast episodes. News story #1: Agile after 20 years With the manifesto for Agile software development turning 20 this year, industry insiders are looking back at the philosophy&#8217;s two decades of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[775,755],"tags":[496,128,497,441,60,499,579,69,244,498,132],"class_list":["post-1858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-review","category-tech-magazine","tag-agile","tag-ci-cd","tag-internet","tag-interview","tag-it-news","tag-light-based-computing","tag-podcast","tag-tech-news","tag-technology","tag-tim-berners-lee","tag-world-wide-web"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1858"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6483,"href":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858\/revisions\/6483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-uk.mindquest.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}