If you’re part of the IT work force in the U.S., no doubt the aftershock of layoffs following the earthquake still shaking the industry has touched you or someone you know. While the tremors are not over, the fact remains there are still far more jobs in the IT work force than there are qualified […]
July 2001 - Vol. 44 No. 7
Features
Approximately 379 million people in 21 countries connected to the Internet from their homes in March, an increase of 6.8 million from February, according to Nielson/NetRatings. The latest figure is based on real-time monitoring of Internet users in countries such as Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and the […]
In "Academics, and the Scarlet Letter ‘A’," ("Practical Programmer," April 2001, p. 17), Robert Glass offers an interesting suggestion that does not go far enough. His complaint about academic authors and reviewers and their bias toward advocacy arose from a reviewer’s comment that the author of a paper being reviewed "needs to do a better […]
Works published by ACM since its inception have been built into a special online collection known as the ACM Digital Library. Nearly half a century of pioneering concepts and fundamental research have been digitized and indexed in a variety of ways in this resource. The retrospective capture for all ACM journals, magazines, and proceedings is […]
Legally Speaking: The Individual in the New Age
There's nowhere to hide if one wishes to be a part of normal society.
The Business of Software: Matching Process to Types of Teams
One size does not fit all when it comes to project teams and their own unique process.
On Site: The Life and Times of the First Web Cam
When convenience was the mother of invention.
Viewpoint: Developing IT Skills Internationally: Who’s Developing Whom?
Skilled people moving from developing countries to developed countries constitutes a significant export of capital from poor to rich.
The Global IT Work Force: Introduction
The view you get depends on where in the world you're standing, but the overall picture is clear: There are many practical, ethical, and cultural challenges the IT industry must overcome to create and maintain a strong, skilled, and loyal work force.
Growth Scenario of IT Industries in India
India has fast emerged as a leader in the IT field. This is due primarily because the people of India were quick to realize and act on the potential of IT industries to generate wealth, foreign exchange, and employment. Today, the IT industry is a primary factor in India's national agenda as an instrument to modernize India's economy. There is a natural but gradual shift toward IT usage in government, the public and private sector, and in education.
The Decline and Fall of the American Programmer
In his 1991 book, The Decline and Fall of the American Programmer, Ed Yourdon wrote: "The American Programmer is about to share the fate of the dodo bird. By the end of this decade, I foresee massive unemployment among the ranks of American programmers, systems analysts, and software engineers. Not because fifth-generation computers will eliminate the need for programming, or because users will begin writing their own programs. No, the reason will be far simpler: international competition will put American programmers out of work, just as Japanese competition put American automobile workers out of work in the 1970s."1
Deconstructing the Australian IT skills shortage paradox—and how to turn it into an advantage for women in IT university programs and the IT workplace.
Some Thoughts on IT Employment in New Zealand
Despite a proportionally small-nation population by world standards, New Zealand's populace of four million produces many high-quality computing professionals. Moreover, New Zealanders hold senior IT positions in universities, research institutes, and companies worldwide. The export of software from New Zealand continues to grow. Indeed, there was a 34% increase in software exports between the 1998 and 1999 financial years.1 The software industry in New Zealand earns five times the export dollars earned by the country's internationally renowned wine industry.
The ACM Nominating Committee is preparing to nominate candidates for the officers of ACM: President, Vice-President, Secretary/Treasurer; and two Members at Large. Suggestions for candidates are solicited. Names should be sent by November 5, 2001 to the Nominating Committee Chairman, c/o the Office of Policy and Administration, ACM, 1515 Broadway, New York, NY 10036, USA. […]
A Perspective on the IT Industry in South Africa
There is a shortage of skilled, experienced information technologists in the South African market.
Crafting an HR Strategy to Meet the Need For IT Workers
Long-term investment? Balanced professional? High-performance professional? Or short-term professional? There's an IT HR strategy for practically any corporate purpose. But before choosing one, be sure you know what that purpose is.
Labor Shortfall in Hong Kong’s IT Industry
Hong Kong is not only an international city where both Western and Eastern cultures merrily coexist, but also a dynamic society receptive to innovation and sophisticated technology. For example, Hong Kong was one of the first societies worldwide to implement (in 1993) a totally digital telecommunications backbone where the domestic network was fiber and international calls were transmitted via fiber, microwave and satellite. Another such example is on average each person in Hong Kong owns a mobile telephone, now estimated at over six million sets.
It’s not surprising that the rapid rate of IT’s penetration into different applications has led to a reportedly huge shortage of IT skills. What is more surprising is this shortage is noted alongside very narrow perceptions of the types of staff we need and why many societies/cultures fail miserably to capitalize on the potential work […]
Facilitating Career Changes Into IT
While the IT worker shortage is well documented, traditional institutions of higher education, even operating at full capacity, will not fill this shortage in a timely manner [2, 3]. The enormous growth of industry certification programs has likewise not succeeded in closing this gap [1]. The U.S. Congress has been pressured to allow the importation of more international IT workers; but even with an increase in the H1-B visa allotment to 200,000 for 2002 and beyond, the shortage will not go away anytime soon [4]. No silver-bullet solution to the IT worker shortage exists; multiple and creative ways to attack this problem are needed. One source of IT labor that may not be fully utilized is the movement of non-IT workers to the IT profession. Traditionally, this involves returning to college for a second bachelor's or graduate degree in an IT-related field. Completing such a program while remaining employed typically takes from two to six years and a correspondingly high level of dedication and sacrifice. There are likely more workers who would make this move to IT if there were more reasonable and practical ways to accomplish it.
Mapping Information-Sector Work to the Work Force
While advanced industrialized nations like the U.S. have been gradually developing information-sector employment along with the IT evolution, newly industrializing nations are leapfrogging directly from traditional agrarian to state-of-the-art information economies. Ireland is a prime example of such a nation. The rapid transformation of Ireland's work force during the closing decades of the 20th century was the object of an ethnographic investigation of the fit between aspects of Irish society and the emergence of its information economy [1].
Great progress in both the quality and quantity of IT staff in China has been evident for several years. The high-speed development of the IT industry has led to a corresponding rise in demand for qualified personnel. Despite this growth, however, there are still serious staffing shortages.
The IT Staffing Situation in Belarus
The programming work force in Belarus will be used increasingly to supplement the productivity of foreign corporations.
Collaborative Virtual Environments
To what extent is cyberspace really a space?
Exploring Data Mining Implementation
How large volumes of organizational data can be exploited for sustained competitive advantage.
Intraorganizational Communication with Intranets
Intranets support communication among widely scattered corporate departments, even among individual employees, while enhancing overall corporate performance.
Inside Risks: Learning from Experience
Despite a half-century of practice, a distressingly large portion of today’s software is over budget, behind schedule, bloated, and buggy. As you know, all four factors generate risks, and bugs can be life-critical. Our reach continues to exceed our grasp. While hardware has grown following Moore’s Law, software seems to be stuck with Gresham’s Law. […]
