Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard has asked me to contribute a piece for their end-of-year roundup. I did one last year. I guess we were thinking about paywalls then. It's not such a hot topic now.  

At the end of this year I'm thinking about the need for proper criticism of software, alongside other arts like theater, movies, music, books, travel, food and architecture. It's finally time to stop being all gee whiz about this stuff. Tech is woven into the fabric of our culture, as much as or more so than the other arts. And it's headed toward being even more interwoven. 

We all need this, on all sides of the art. As users and creators. There's very little understanding of how we work. That's illustrated perfectly by the Isaacson bio of Steve Jobs. We now see what a disaster this is going to be, from the future-historian point of view. 

I've thought that perhaps a panel of product creators could give awards to journalism that really captures the spirit of technology. The goal would be to move away from the lone inventor myth and see tech projects as more like film production or a even more apt, a TV series. Software is a process. It's not like Starry Night, as Joni Mitchell said, but it's not like a song either. It's like Breaking Bad or Dexter or Boardwalk Empire.  

If I could nudge the editorial people in a new direction, this would be it.  

Let's advance the art of technology criticism. 

PS: I'd also like to see J-school students learn how to manage infrastructure.