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June 16, 2003
Mind and Machine
A few weeks ago when I visited AT&T Labs, I sat through a presentation on data visualization. I realized during that discussion that too often computers are used to replace human thinking, instead of trying to enhance it.
Humans are very good at pattern recognition and other high-level cognitive functions. Recognizing a picture is very easy for humans, where it is quite difficult for a computer. Rather than exploit this powerful human capability, a lot of software instead ignores it, or worse, tries to replace it.
I think systems and network management are particular areas where high-level pattern recognition could be more utilized. I've found that most management tools tend towards doing all the thinking for humans. Most have very poor visualization features. And they still end up being very complex tools with relatively basic functionality.
Perhaps if the tools were to focus on collecting and visualizing the management information, instead of trying to fully process and analyze it, they would be more effective. Looking for anomolies in a list of status reports is almost impossible. Presenting instead a picture of the network status might allow the network operators to more quickly pick out anomolies. I haven't seen many management tools that take that approach, though.
Posted by pete at June 16, 2003 11:35 PM
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Awesome Post !
Posted by: Troy at June 16, 2003 11:55 PM