By Natasha Lomas, 24 October 2006 16:45
NEWS
silicon.com readers have happy-slapped the notion that the iPod-wielding, mobile-phone toting youth of today will consign the IT department to the scrapheap of redundancy.
In a poll of readers, an overwhelming majority (77 per cent) rejected the premise that 'tech-savvy youngsters are going to make the need for a dedicated IT department a thing of the past', while a mere four per cent stuck their hand up in support of the view that the next generation will displace the techies.
Almost a fifth (19 per cent) responded to the vision of upstart youths overrunning the server room with a tentative 'maybe' - saying they "doubt all teens are so tech-savvy".
Futurologist and former BT CTO, Peter Cochrane, recently fanned the flames of controversy at the annual silicon.com CIO Forum when he said young people are already a disruptive force in the workplace when it comes to their use of technology. "Corporate IT departments are going the way of the typing pool," he warned.
Back in August, a silicon.com CIO Jury was unanimous in its view that the youth-fuelled consumerisation of technology and rise of web 2.0 is more than just a fad - and will lead to seismic changes in the IT industry.
The poll was based on the responses of 325 silicon.com readers.
Comments
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1. Mark Kobayashi-Hillary
In my view, Cochrane was right, but the issue is clouded by images of iPod-wielding hoodies running the server farm. Laptop policies in many large companies are a joke. Decrepit kit is issued to those who are on the road and representing the company. I recently sat next to a senior manager on a GNER train who could not get a wifi signal, basically because the years-old standard-issue Dell she was using was not up to it. My MacBook was up and running and I was chatting to a contact in Bangalore on Skype while cruising along the tracks. This is not about letting kids run IT; it is about encouraging more flexibility in IT policies and shifting the emphasis away from a one-size-fits-all mentality.
2. Roger Huffadine
Peter appears to be detached from reality. The government targets for teaching IT in schools is NEVER going to produce the World of which he dreams. Only a radical shake up of our whole approach to education could disrupt IT departments in the way he describes. 20 years ago I was asking the question "Why don't we pay primary school teachers to teach children to learn and to type?" and still at 11 and usually at 16 most children cannot use a computer keyboard to interact efficiently with a computer. The top 10% of the population may become adept enough to make minor changes to IT systems but the overruling influences will be the majority and the crap dispensed by the nerds in Redmond Washington.
3. anonymous
To carry on the iPod analogy just because you can use one doesn't mean you can 1) design and engineer the hardware 2) write the firmware, nor 3) fix it when it goes wrong.
In similar ways the use of IT tools, be they hardware or software, doesn't qualify one to design, implement or maintain them. Does it?
4. Peter Cochrane
An excellent poll result as history shows us that the minority view is almost always right when it comes to future outcomes!