Meet me at the CS dept. store
After reading this article about how cool it is even for non-technical people to come to an Apple store, I started to think why not to have something like that for a CS department.
I can imagine an open space shop that helps people with their computer related problems. Folks can come and play with something cool, have a chat over their problems (not necessarily only those of technical character). And we, IT researchers can help them and in turn can learn about their genuine needs.
Attitude, quality, passion for what you do, style, selectiveness, positive reinforcement, customer service, …
However, a tricky one, ‘cos all depends what are you/we looking or searching for, in different phases. It can be different ways to arise interests and exchange knowledge. For example: LAN parties, or for example, this even sounds interesting Assembly (http://www.assembly.org/2006/asm)
I dare to call me an assembly veteran; used to go there in the early 90s. It’s changed a lot from a geek demo party to an all-round geek convention. Every year I decide I’ll go there one more time, but nostalgia intervenes. I seriously urge you to go.
Still back to the original idea, one of the things that worries me about CS is that it feels we kind of fortify ourselves in the campuses and Science Parks. I think we should ‘come out’ :)