Where Are We?

A N N B O YA JIA N To most of the hundred millions of computer users around the world, the inner workings of a computer are an utter mystery. Opening the box holds as much attraction as lifting the hood of a car. Users expect information technology professionals to help them with their needs for designing, locating, retrieving, using, configuring, programming, maintaining, and understanding computers, networks, applications, and digital objects. They expect academic computer science to educate and train computing professionals, to be familiar with the changing technologies, and to maintain research programs that contribute to these ends. Students aspiring to be professionals look to faculty for a comprehensive, up-to-date view of a world with many fragments, for making sense of rapidly changing technologies, for assistance in framing and answering important questions, and for training in effective professional practices. In short, everyone has become dependent on IT professionals as much as on the information technologies themselves. Who are the IT professionals? They are a much larger and more