In information technology, “non-interoperable” is bad. You don’t want THAT system.

Proprietary is okay if it meets a need. But, too many independent systems in a place where collaboration is important leads to unnecessary problems.

BusinessWeek has an article up about President Obama’s technology put in place to help make government more efficient. From what I’ve read, they’re doing what should be done with information systems and doing it with high quality management. The one challenge that all IT/IS teams face when trying to implement such a large scale change is culture. An ingrained culture of “we do things this way” or “it’s never been done before” can stall and even derail changes that are meant to have a positive effect. To everyone working in government agencies that are about to experience this change, from what I’ve read, you have a great team leading the way that is ready to listen to you and build a system that helps you to do your job more efficiently- serving America.

Here is a link to the article.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_49/b4158044764871.htm

Working in the field for a number of years now, not everyone understands what it is supposed to be or do. Think about it. Is it just about computers and working with computers? For many people, it is. You use a computer to do your work. If the computer breaks, call the IT department and they’ll fix it.

But IT is more than just hardware and software. I know this is going to sound strange, but it’s about information. I know what you’re thinking,

“That’s just absurd… now fix my computer.”

Yes, some of us fix computers. Others create applications for you to interact with; analyze and aggregate data; find patterns that a mountain of data can sometimes hide. We turn all of the “stuff” into information- something useful.

Here are two articles about information.

The first is about business intelligence.
BusinessWeek: Business Intelligence’s Time is Now

The second is about IT in health care.
BusinessWeek: IT Spending: When More is Less

The students are only midway through their program and in the field of IT, anything can change within a couple of years. Predicting the future has always been difficult for me, even if I have a magic eight-ball.

When I started my freshman year in college as an engineering major, I knew that that was what I wanted to do- to be working on spaceships… Yeah, that’s the ticket! Unfortunately, my aptitude and patience for physics equations and phantom numbers proved to be my downfall and exit from the field. Actually, it was the help of my summer internship mentor that turned me in the direction I am heading, and the place where I am, now. She was adamant about finding success in happiness and translating that into “the perfect career”.

Thus, in preparing for tomorrow’s lecture. I’ve decided not to give them a comprehensive rundown of the many opportunities currently in IT and the budding opportunities of tomorrow, but rather a chance to truly explore what really makes them happy. Of course I’ll have information on current and future opportunities, but I’ll also give them techniques that they’ll be able to use when they do go job hunting. When you’re approaching graduation, that seems to be the one course that no one ever really teaches. One advice I will give for this field is that they should expect changes to come quickly and for disappointments to be numerous, especially in the search for a job. Even with that, the one thing I’ve noticed after all these years of observing the industry- any industry for that matter- is that your job search results will only be the tip of the iceberg.

Smile, people. Here’s my outline for tomorrow’s PowerPoint slides:

• Likes and Dislikes
• README.TXT
• Career Translations
• The Master Plan
• The Pursuit of Happyness
• Finding Nemo