Increase IT Diversity

My favorite columnist, Eugene Kane of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, made the following statement in a recent column:

It was clear the blogosphere in Milwaukee is similar to most institutions in town: predominantly white and filled with folks who only want to talk about race relations if they can blame all of the problems in the black community on Ald. Mike McGee.

I agree that there is a startling lack of diversity in the blogosphere, and in the technology industry in general. I have worked in the IT industry for more than 16 years, and in that time the only thing that hasn’t changed much is the predominance of white males.

For some reason white males get the gig as the uber-geek, especially in the highly technical positions.

Are white males the only ones who are willing to spend most of their waking hours dreaming of ways to create a fully-meshed network or deploy redundant SANs?

I certainly hope not.

As I have previously stated, I believe that there are plenty of unemployed or underemployed folks who have the aptitude and desire to join the IT workforce. All that they need is a chance.

In order to increase diversity in the IT industry, I propose that the following measures be pursued.

• Encourage training schools such as ITT Technical Institute and PC Pro Schools to create campuses within the city of Milwaukee, especially in areas that have high unemployment rates.
• Encourage local businesses to create on-the-job-training programs for entry level IT positions.
• Create a program to salvage retired computer equipment from local businesses and provide this free gear to people who cannot afford a computer.
• Provide free broadband connections to homes where someone is training for an IT career through a registered program.
• Hold IT related job fairs in Milwaukee’s inner-city and other areas that have high unemployment rates.
• Broadcast public service announcements on television and radio that promote IT related careers and provide training related information.

These are the same ideas that I proposed in my previous posting, but they are important enough to reiterate.

Instead of finding ways to outsource IT jobs overseas, we should be finding ways to give everyone in this country an opportunity to have a fun and exciting job that also pays pretty darn good.

Increasing the IT Work Force

A recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story piqued my interest, not necessarily for the stated good intentions but for what wasn’t said.

The story explains how local businesses are visiting Milwaukee area public schools in an attempt to excite students about technology with the hopes that some of them will eventually pursue IT careers.

Without a doubt, this is a wonderful idea that will help build the area’s technology base in the future.

I know that the story was focused on the drive to encourage students to become interested in technology, but it made me wonder why very little has been done to encourage and enable adults to break down the barriers that prevent them from pursuing technology careers.

According to the Journal Sentinel, unemployment in the Milwaukee area rose to 5.5% in the last 12 months. That’s a large workforce that is available now, not in 5 or 10 years.

With such a large pool of unemployed citizens, why isn’t something being done to encourage and train these people to pursue IT careers?

Certainly some of them will have the aptitude and desire to learn the requisite skills. All that they need is the right training and a chance to learn.

I realize that there are a multitude of opinions about improving the unemployment rate in the city of Milwaukee. Here are some of my ideas for what our community can do to improve the job prospects for the unemployed and our local IT workforce:

• Encourage training schools such as ITT Technical Institute and PC Pro Schools to create campuses within the city of Milwaukee, especially in areas that have high unemployment rates.
• Encourage local businesses to create on-the-job-training programs for entry level IT positions.
• Create a program to salvage retired computer equipment from local businesses and provide this free gear to people who do not have a computer.
• Provide free broadband connections to homes where someone is training for an IT career through a registered program.
• Hold IT related job fairs in areas of the city that have high unemployment rates.
• Broadcast public service announcements on television and radio that promote IT related careers and provide training related information.

As a product of the Washington High School Computer Specialty Program in the 1980s, I realize how vital the job fairs and technology programs are to public school students.

Hopefully Milwaukee area leaders will see the importance of technology based training programs for adults that simply need some guidance, encouragement and a chance to pursue their dream.

Surely the community and local businesses will benefit.

Sports Mirror Technology

Watching the NFL playoffs this weekend, I was struck by the similarity between sports and technology.

All sports fans have favorite teams, and very rarely do those allegiances ever change. Packer fans are usually Packer fans for life, and as such they generally despise rivals such as the Vikings and the Bears.

The same rivalries can be seen in technology. For example, Linux fanatics often eschew Windows with the same vigor as Packer fans lamenting the Bears’ recent Super Bowl berth. Fans of Windows, however, view Linux as an operating system aberration in much the same manner as the Bears getting to the Super Bowl.

The impending release of Windows Vista will present another similarity between sports and technology. Windows XP, currently the most widely used personal computer operating system, will soon be derided as legacy technology and be relegated to clearance shelves and the history books.

As the New England Patriots recently found out, today’s darling can quickly become tomorrow’s goat. With new technology being developed on an almost daily basis, the world of technology is full of gadgets and gear whose gotta-have-it lifespan lasted mere weeks.

In sports and technology, dynasties are rarely built. The Packers suffered through 30 years of misery before resurrecting themselves for a ten year run of success. It’s nearly impossible for teams at the top to stay there permanently. It just doesn’t happen.

While the business world does have it’s perennial winners such as Microsoft and Intel, one only has to look as far as IBM to see that the technology world is chock full of organizations that were put out of business or gobbled up by their competitors.

If sports can be considered ultra-competitive, the cut-throat business world of technology run by uber-geeks and highly paid CEOs could make even a frightening linebacker like Brian Urlacher run for the hills with his tail between his legs.

As we watch the Super Bowl and cheer for our favorite team while jeering their opponent, just remember that before long both teams may be as popular as a Pentium 3 or an iPod-mini.

Retinal Scan Voting

In less than 24 hours I will wield a dull number 2 pencil and hopefully make sweeping changes throughout our government.

Despite amazing changes in technology in the 20 years since I cast my first ballot, the pencil still remains the weapon of choice for voters in Wisconsin. In that same timeframe Microsoft has released more versions of Windows than we have had presidents.

If Microsoft had advanced at the same pace as voting technology, uber-geeks would still play silly pager games and the mouse, the Start menu and the USB port would be considered cutting edge.

But alas, technology has finally gotten to the point where we can reliably use it for elections. Biometric scanners could provide a nearly foolproof method for ensuring that one-person-one-vote becomes reality.

Fingerprint recognition or retinal scans may sound like something from a sci-fi movie, but they are being used safely and reliably in a wide variety of applications that require high security.

Could these methods be circumvented? Sure, everything has the potential for infiltration and fraud. But I think that we’d be fairly safe until someone figures out how to borrow somebody’s fingerprints or retinal patterns.

Impractical? I don’t think so. These same technologies could be used by the state motor vehicle departments to help eliminate fraudulent drivers licenses, state ID cards and a host of other identification related issues.

Building the database of biometric data could be a stumbling block, but not one that is impossible to overcome. A little ingenuity could provide a variety of methods for collecting the information and ensuring that nobody is disenfranchised.

In a time where leadership is so important, it’s time for someone to step to the head of the line and present a bold initiative like this to ensure that our elections will no longer be as reliable as a candidates campaign slogan.

The time has come to retire the pencil and embrace the retinal scan.