When the Christmas season featured, among other things, a breach of security for 40 million Target customers via credit card number theft, it launched an investigation of "how could this happen?"
When the ObamaCare website went live in September 2013, and traffic snafus, design flaws, and other software gremlins hit, it launched a political onslaught and investigation into "how could this happen?"
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg.
Infrastructure--how things actually operate 'behind the scenes'--never is very sexy, seldom gets adequate funding, and rarely wins plaudits if done well. Let it fail, though, and all hell breaks loose.
Infrastructure design and deployment is hard work, low recognition (except for negatives), and of necessity designed to be a frustrating, highly interactive and complex task for all but the simplest tasks.
The rewards are very seldom measured in terms of stock options, cover stories, or hero badges--quite unlike expectations that starter kids at Facebook or Twitter might hold.
Why would anyone sign up?
For the answer to that question, there is a superb article, written by eight of the original Internet designers (Cerf, Kahn, et al) at
It describes the enthusiasm, the drive, the dedication and the 'noble goals' of the creators in a way that I think would be good material for teachers wishing to have some positive stories about 'why STEM'
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