Chief W
e used to talk about how the convergence of twentieth century
technologies would give us an always-on,
totally connected, multi-media universe in the twenty-first century. That vision is now unfolding in many parts of the world and adding value to the lives of the people who are privileged to be a part of it.
Reading through the articles in this issue of the Journal I am struck by the thought that we should now be talking about how a convergence of demand for skilled professionals is going to impact on this technology driven world.
Inside this issue you will read about the need to engage more women in computing, the growth of data mining and the on-going question of whether to outsource to lower wage and skills rich economies. These issues, along with the need to develop new products and applications, keep legacy systems operating, ensure continued high levels of security and reduce the impact of our information systems on the environment, all create demand for a steady flow of new and creative talent at a time when the number of students applying to study computer science is declining.
The looming crisis calls for innovative solutions. Although the future prosperity of nations increasingly depends on their ability to produce
4 December 2012 | Volume 22 – Issue 4
executive’s view...
a generation of skilled and enthusiastic programmers and computer scientists, governments have been slow to address the issue through their education systems. As a result, industry is stepping in, with pioneering projects to engage the interest of children as young as seven and below. These include programming camps, hackathons, low-priced, programmable computing devices and mentoring programmes.
As we have already observed in the open source community, once people are engaged they will develop their own support and mentoring systems. This is happening within organisations as people bring their own devices in to the workplace and look to their peers for help in connecting and working with them. Rather than prohibiting the practice, IT directors are learning to find ways of incorporating the creative and supportive energies within the network whilst maintaining overall network security.
We need to take bold steps now to develop the next generation of computer scientists and IT managers if we are to keep moving forward and deliver the benefits of ICT to more of our fellow citizens.
Vanessa Hymas, chief executive Institute for the Management of Information Systems
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