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High demand for technology skills has formed the market place 14 July 2009 15:24
My perspective regarding the economic nature and businesses needs
driving the development of Information Technology.
Information is unlike traditional renewable and non-renewable
resources which diminish as they are consumed and suffer from over
consumption. Information does not diminish as it is consumed. Instead
information grows with wider distribution and consumption. With wider
distribution and consumption the growth rate of knowledge increases.
Unlike traditional resources rationing information does not preserve
this precious resource, but ratter as access to knowledge is reduced
fewer contributors are able to pass on their precious knowledge and
knowledge is lost. Knowledge and information does not stand in
isolation.
Much of how our Information Technology has developed and will develop
is direct result of the particular nature of information. Much has
changed since the early years of mainframes, to Unix workstations, to
personal computers, to web enabled technology. Accessibility and low
cost distribution are the hallmarks of success. Unix workstations
provided a common OS interface expanding its users and contributors.
Personal computers with its common OS put computing power into the
hands of the people, enabling low cost software through the massive
customer base. At the same time proprietary software companies
restricted access to the knowledge required to build their increasing
complex computers systems. This gave advantage to the largest
corporation which could assemble the largest pool of knowledge and
contributors. In areas where communication and storage standards were
not defined the largest corporation had ability to define proprietary
formats and insure these formats were propagated through the large
user base. However with the traditional proprietary model the
knowledge required to understand the systems inner workings was a
deeply held secrete, which met outside contribution was highly
restricted. The growth and economic benefits of Information
Technology has presented an increasing demanded for engineers and
scientists. Deep knowledge of proprietary licensed systems is
restricted, driving contributors to explore open systems with either
optional sharing or mandatory sharing, BSD licenses or GPL licenses.
Proprietary technology may come and go, but openly shared technology
which comes out of BSD and GPL licensed solutions will remain.
Information Technology businesses require access to engineers and
scientists trained in the deep inner workings of Technology on which
Information Technology is based. Information Technology spans
virtually all industries; industrial and mobile control,
manufacturing automation, finance, distribution, sales,
communications, consumer electronics and entertainment. I believe
Universities of Science and Technology have an important role to play
meeting the business demand for skill engineers and scientists.
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