Balgarianovinite.com Computer scientist and software design expert Dr. Alistair Cockburn said that he is happy to work with museum professionals and historians in an interview for the BTA’s podcast LIK Hour.
Dr. Cockburn delivered a public lecture titled “The Heart of Agile in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” at the Sofia University and led a master class at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) with specialists in digitalization and cultural heritage preservation.
His visit was organized under the Focus: ERA Chair project, implemented at the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics and dedicated to the digitalization of cultural heritage. The FOCUS project “Fostering Digital Cultural Heritage Through Open Innovation and Open Science” explores the intersection of technology, culture, and innovation, aiming to transform the way cultural heritage is preserved and experienced in the digital era. Open innovation and open science in the field of cultural heritage currently lacks sufficient research attention.
“Agile really is about being more collaborative to get a better exchange of ideas, and then taking those ideas out as early as possible to see how they fit in the world. And then reflecting on that and improving everything,” Dr. Cockburn said.
“These days I use only four words: collaborate to deliver, reflect to improve,” he said. “The better we collaborate between people and agents, and of course these days with AI as well, the better things go. Lower fear, raise trust, get the ideas moving between minds, check them against reality, discover the surprise, and then reflect and improve everything.”
Asked how he would explain Agile software development to a non-specialist audience, Dr. Cockburn said that the principles apply far beyond software engineering: “A church group, a family, a business, a government, the better we collaborate, the better the outcome.”
According to him, artificial intelligence simultaneously creates fears and opportunities. He compared neural networks to the human brain and argued that working with AI resembles collaboration between people.
“I have the same fears as anybody,” he admitted, referring to concerns about the ecological and social impact of AI, but added that entirely new forms of collaboration are emerging between humans and intelligent systems.
Speaking about the digitalization of cultural heritage, the central focus of the BAS project, Dr. Cockburn said he was excited to work outside the corporate environment.
“This is my first visit here, and I’m happy not to be working for a corporation but on something very different,” he said. “The people I’m working with are museum people and historians, and it’s wonderful.”
According to him, digitalization is not simply about scanning artifacts and storing data online. “The digitized data by itself is dead data,” he explained. “The real question is what people will want to do with it.”
He gave examples of researchers studying how colors were used in medieval manuscripts across centuries, others searching specific textual patterns, and even schoolchildren exploring digital archives creatively.
“That’s why I’m here,” Dr. Cockburn said. “To describe, in a tidy way, the kinds of things people will want to do with this digitized heritage and how we can help them extract meaning from it.”
Dr. Cockburn is an American computer scientist who earned his PhD at the University of Oslo with a dissertation on people and methodology in software development. He is one of the authors of the Agile Manifesto, which laid the foundations of modern software project management methodologies in 2001. He is an internationally recognized expert in software design, Extreme Programming (XP), and effective teamwork, as well as the author of the influential book Writing Effective Use Cases, according to his hosts from the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at BAS. The Cockburn Scale for categorizing software development projects bears his name. He describes himself as a descendant of an old Scottish clan. Agile Pioneer Alistair Cockburn in BTA’s LIK Hour: I’m Happy to Work With Museum Professionals and Historians 2026 THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-05-29 15:11:00 Latest news World news Country news Most important news latest news most important latest of the day Justice Petar Nizamov Feathers Petar Nizamov- Feathers Justice bg iustitia.bg iustitia iusticia usticia investigation Burgas Bulgaria news news of the last hour news of the day news of today Bulgaria news The news from Bulgaria blitz news top news most important most commented latest news Boyko Borisov news weather coronavirus news news weather facebook youtube facebook instagram news today news of the last minutes news today today news news bg news leading news hot news bg news site for news all news news bg news of the last hour latest latest news bg news of today news today news today news of the last hour latest news today news bg news news 24 hours news vesti bg novini news world bird bg bivol bg bivol trud bg novini latest news today novinite bg news hello bulgaria political party coat of arms delyan peevski scandalous Bulgarian National Television Free Europe Television scandal exclusive live tv live right now tv tv online tv program bg live now tv news online tv online live court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas district court Burgas appellate court Burgas prosecutor Burgas prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev Prosecutor Geshev Tsatsarov Ministry of Internal Affairs Burgas ODMR Burgas ODPR Burgas police Burgas district police Burgas prosecutor Tsatsarov SGS cases Varna court chairman of the SGS court decisions on civil cases decisions on cases Plovdiv court decision of the court decisions cases Varna court criminal cases district district court decisions work in the court SGS chairman of the SGS judges Sofia court post judges Plovdiv court Plovdiv judges Plovdiv Supreme Court Inspectorate Supreme Court Supreme Judicial Council lawyer lawyer criminal cases lawyer civil cases lawyer marriage cases lawyer administrative criminal law criminal process civil law civil process administrative law constitutional law