Mario Tokoro to Keynote at SEPG Asia-Pacific

Mario Tokoro, President and CEO, Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc., will give a keynote presentation at SEPG Asia-Pacific 2009. His keynote abstract follows:

Huge and Complex Software Systems Are Open Systems

We are facing two kinds of complexities, which lead to uncertainty and unpredictability in huge and complex software systems. One is internal, such as that caused by programming errors and incomplete specifications resulting in inconsistency between the designer’s intention and specification of a system and between the specification and implementation of the system. It can be amplified as a system is revised in accordance with a change of requirements. The other is external, such as that caused by improper operations, unexpected use, and attacks across networks. When a system is distributed over networks, we cannot know the entire structure and behaviors of the system at any instant. Thus, we cannot take the external observers’ view, and therefore the reductionist approach, to a huge and complex software system. Instead, we need to treat such a system as an open system, to which we can only take the internal observers’ view. In this speech, dependability of a huge and complex software system is discussed. Then, a conceptual base and practical methodology for constructing and managing such systems are proposed.

Read his biography.