…On Ephemera for Engineers and Scientists (Feb. 2004)

Yes, yes, yes. I have some issues with technical articles and the Internet. My fear is the ease with which the nature of an article can be obfuscated, intentionally or not, to the point where a non-reviewed article appears as though it had been peer-reviewed. There are some online epositories to which authors can submit "cutting-edge" papers that have been submitted for review but not accepted elsewhere. This gives the impression that the manuscript is quality, approved work, when, in fact, it could have significant flaws. What's the point of a review process if authors are dumping their unreviewed manuscripts all over the Internet?

The IEEE could help by tweaking the rules for submitting papers, to define putting a paper on the Web as the equivalent of pre-publication. Once the IEEE accepts a paper for publication, it goes into the IEEE database, which is not ephemeral. Authors should post on the Internet only exact copies, with the IEEE copyright notice. It’s hard to enforce, but without some protocol, authors are free to do whatever they wish — especially when researchers want to get things out as soon as possible and accumulate lots of publications.

— Dan Sebald
IEEE Member

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…On Non-technical Managers (April 2004)

Non-technical managers are not capable of providing guidance to engineers about technical matters as they relate to company objectives, or of being able to recognize when someone with an axe to grind is trying to “snow” them with a biased view of the technological issues related to a decision.

— Robert Spooner
IEEE Member
Lemont, Penn.

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…On Knowing Your Customers (March 2004)

Mr. Roman’s article can go a long way to help young engineers keep great ideas off the scrap heap of history. The article addresses a principal problem with the way companies charter engineering work today. One of the lost-forever benefits of old-school mentoring for months or even years was to open the eyes of an open mind to reality. Lack of insight into realistic project factors — call it “environment” — does as much damage.

— Bill Clark
IEEE Associate Member
Fort Wayne, Ind.

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…On Hybrid Vehicles (April 2004)

Good article, easy to read. To promote hybrids, it would be beneficial to provide some links to federal and/or state incentives or tax breaks for potential purchasers.

— Jim Tysiak
IEEE Member
Palos Park, Ill.

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…On the Virtual Workplace (March 2004)

None of the mentions the primary force opposing telecommuting: management. Only the very best of engineering managers are secure enough in their relationships with their employees not to feel that they have to maintain control of their employees by having them physically present. In fact, the more insecure the manager, the more often you will find him or her turning up in your office or cubicle for no apparent reason, just to make sure you’re there.

On the other hand, one entrepreneur I know started out from the very beginning to create a distributed company. His central office consists of a secretary and him, a network of a motley assortment of platforms, and a roomful of high-speed telecommunications equipment. The rest of his employees — all engineers — are located all over the world (he just hired them in place and supplied them with bandwidth). His comment to me was that he wanted to ensure that he got absolutely the best talent in the world. He’s now a self-made multimillionaire.

But such examples are far and away the exception. In general, anyone who wants to telecommute will have to first gain the trust — and then the grudging permission — of management. Many employees who have won permission to telecommute have only done so after announcing their intention to resign.

Moreover, employees in remote locations are usually the first targets of layoffs, since they are uniquely vulnerable from a sociological standpoint. With the engineering job market what it is today, unless the employer raises the possibility of telecommuting first, it is probably a “career-limiting move” to even suggest it.

In general, the “virtual workplace” will not materialize until management is forced to accept it by job market conditions. This is something that is unlikely to occur in the lifetime of anyone working in the industry today.

— Dave Simmons
IEEE Member
Newberg, Ore.

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