Civil engineering as a practice is at least 4000 years old; as a professional degree, about 200 years. Lots of dams failed before we became good enough at build

Civil engineering as a practice is at least 4000 years old; as a professional degree, about 200 years. Lots of dams failed before we became good enough at building them to license people and place liability on them for failing. The first software engineering BS degree in the US was offered 16 years ago (at RIT, if you're curious). The most senior web developers in the world are within 20 years of the most junior. I won't argue for a lawless internet, but I also don't think locking things down to the same level as other professions is a good idea. It will stifle the growth and change the field must go through. If you want a model for what regulation of online security does to a nation, look no further than South Korea. 10 years after the government required using a certain encryption mechanism for banking and commerce, 99.9% of users are still forced to use Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer -- because the only way to meet the regulatory requirement is an ActiveX control. http://blog.mozilla.com/gen/2007/02/27/the-cost-of-monoculture/ http://blog.mozilla.com/gen/2007/02/27/the-cost-of-monocultu...