Thornton May

Visitors from another planet scouting the state of IT today might report back to their superiors that Earth's technology industry is very sick and probably dying. The extraterrestrial analysts might be misled by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's self-serving, totally unimaginative and all-too-frequent media appearances portraying competing vendors as a gang of plunging skydivers having but two parachutes to share among themselves.

Rudy Giuliani argued that the best way to fight crime is to fight the disorder that precedes it -- those quality-of-life crimes such as spraying graffiti, panhandling, breaking windows, littering and letting buildings crumble and decay.

Information technology leaders are often described as "ambassadors" for our profession. In the first part of the 17th century, the father of the British foreign service, Sir Henry Wotten, described the ambassadorial function this way: "An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country."

Information technology leaders are often described as "ambassadors" for our profession. In the first part of the 17th century, the father of the British foreign service, Sir Henry Wotten, described the ambassadorial function this way: "An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country."

If we are to emerge from the nuclear winter of slashed and frozen IT budgets, the industry needs a new kind of hero. Not someone high tech, certainly not high hype, most definitely high trust. Let me put forward a candidate, the heretofore unheralded and underappreciated IT auditor.

Managers erroneously believe that the top reason IT professionals quit their jobs is money. Computerworld (US) columnist Thornton May finds that the top reason people quit can be summed up in this sentence:

Information Age companies are about one-eighth of the way to becoming wireless.

Alarmists counselled executives to pay any price, bear any burden, hire any chef and fund every amenity to help make high-performance IT employees happy.