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The Software Artists: Explanation

I wrote a paper some time ago to submit to the Conference of the Association for Software Testing, but the paper was not accepted for the program. I'm on the waiting list if another presenter drops out, which seems unlikely at this point.

I think it is likely that my paper was not accepted at CAST was because it is somewhat similar to a presentation from Jonathan Kohl and Michael Bolton, two of the best testers in the universe. I intend to publish my paper here on my blog in the hopes that Jonathan and Michael and other Software Artists will have access to as much relevant information as possible to support their position.

I think that one enormous reason that few people take software-as-artistic-practice seriously is because of a perceived lack of practical application: manufacturing and engineering provide venerable examples of measurement tools, education curricula, and market strategy-- assuming that you believe that software is an engineered and manufactured product. Those of us who believe that software is an artistic process have failed to provide compelling alternatives to the tools provided by engineering and manufacturing.

I set out to start to remedy that situation with this paper.

It is a long piece, so I'll publish it in several sections in the coming days, as I have time to get it right and looking good. I have extensive references also. My plan is to publish references as separate blog posts after each section, so that people who don't care can skip them and people who do care can relate them to recent posts.