Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
9 Conclusion
Kristen Nygaard liked to be at the centre and to be seen, to show his qualities, and for
them to be honoured. He was proud of his many honorary prizes. But he was also
proud of his achievements, satisfied with their recognition, and he happily shared the
recognition with his colleagues and co-workers. The hospitality of Kristen and his
wife Johanna is widely acknowledged by all who came in contact with them.
The satisfaction gave him energy and desire to go on with his tireless efforts to
spread the message that object-orientation is not just a technology for programming,
but primarily a tool for modelling and organizing multi-perspective understandings of
a system, thus contributing to further understanding. No task seemed too big for him,
even at the age of 75.
The major chords of Ny-
gaard's life's work are soli-
darity and empowerment. In
his work on computer lan-
guages, system development,
and object-oriented educa-
tion, as well as in his work
for the homeless, the trade
unions, the environment, and
the “Nei til EU” movement,
he took the side of the com-
mon people against the
forces of the market. He
recognized that the means a
person uses to structure his
thinking about a phenome-
non and his understanding of
the world is not neutral.
Information technology, he
maintained, reflected by and
large the worldview of the market in terms of values, power and objectives. His work
encompasses a critical re-examination of this, from the perspective of ordinary people,
emphasising solidarity, democracy and decent working conditions.
Kristen Nygaard and Ole-Johan Dahl in 2000, proud
receivers of recognition from the King of Norway
Photo by: Siw Lene Ringvold
References
In addition to the material referenced in the text and our private recollections, we have
used Kristen Nygaard's home page [22] at the University of Oslo as a source for this
presentation.
1. Bemer, B.: SIMULA, an ALGOL Offspring - First Object-Oriented Programming Lan-
guage. In: Bob Bemer's Computer History Vignettes,
http://www.bobbemer.com/SIMULA.HTM (last accessed January 12, 2010)
2. BIT (Nordisk Tidskrift for Informasjonsbehandling). Jan V. Garwick in Memoriam 29(3),
576 (1989)
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