Blogo-spherical, or What Goes Around Comes Around

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Posted on June 18, 2012 by Don Sheppard Posted as Blogosphere Discussion

A few random thoughts for a very humid day (in downtown Toronto at least)…..

The Blogosphere contest:   I have been in the Blogging Idol contest since the beginning, and have enjoyed it every year.  There were fewer active contestents this year, but the discussions were really interesting.  Each year is different - some years were more about pictures and getting on google, but less so this year.  Which is more like it was the first year – what goes around…..

It makes you wonder what blogging is for, and why so many people do it.

The IT industry:  I think most would agree we are entering a new era in IT.  One where applications are supplied as a utility and systems are a blend of corporate and social systems.  Perhaps its the supply of application processing and storage that is the emerging utility computing, not the network.  To me, this has some similarities to mainframe timesharing in the 60s/70s, although at a whole different scale.  Cloud Computing is definitely a paradigm shift, but its not the first one!  What goes around comes around…..

IT careers:  I think that in the baby boomer era there are some careers that have a similarity to the hype cycle – a beginning, a ramp up of expectations, a period of disillusionment, and a maturity stage.   For some, including myself, the maturity stage is one of uncertainty and a desire to contribute without necessarily the right time and plac being available.  I also think that the tough economic times will disrupt a lot of people’s career plans, at least for a while.  Maybe what goes around will come around for careers too!

IT Technology:  Here I think there are certainly waves, although I am not sure we end up coming around to where we were.  It seems that RIM will be unlikely to re-gain their former glory.  People in the PC business are changing rapidly as tablets gain traction.  Those who started that business aren’t in it any longer!  But there’s lots of change in the underlying technology of IT……and no doubt we’ll see new opportunities with “systems of engagement” just as we did with minicomputers, PCs, the Web and so on.  What goes around sort of comes around!

Let’s find the next topic for Blogoshpere…..and keep posting!

Don Sheppard Don Sheppard (87 Posts)

I'm a Blogging Idol enthusiast who also does consulting for a living. I began my career as a railway data communications engineer. After working for a bank for 7 years, I took up the consulting challenge and I still find it challenging! I try to keep in touch with a lot of different I&IT topics but I'm usually working in areas that involve service management and procurement. I'm back into ISO standards development - in the area of cloud computing (ISO JTC1/SC38). I'm starting to get more interested in networking history, so I guess I'm starting to look backwards as well as forwards! My homepage is http://www.concon.com


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  • Bruce Stewart

    Blogging was and is (I think) a way to have your voice heard. One of the reasons commenting on blogs has fallen off is because there are now more ways to do that with social networks, cross-posts, etc. But original stuff still needs a home.

    The IT industry: yes, it runs in spirals, coming back to the same point again and again but in different contexts. When “the consensus” breaks down, we get periods in the spiral that emphasise creation, novelty, etc. — when there is a consensus as to what “appropriate ways” look like, we get the timesharing/shared model emerging (packages are a form of this).

    IT Careers: a balance of business, technology and people/soft skills has always made for a stellar profile; it’s becoming more important right now. Those that want to be technical specialists should be heading to the enterprises that provide technology to others. Those that want to stay in enterprises whose primary mission is something other than IT will need the business and soft side more than ever, coupled with razor-sharp decisions about information and technology.

    IT Technologies: Here’s the one place I’m expecting to see a period of “more of the same” emerging. RIM’s difficulties, like Nokia’s, are evidence of a maturing market (top of the S-curve), a period with many small tweaks rather than leapfrog moments. There will be differences of view about the market (e.g. will the Jobs-era “this is the right size for a phone” persist, or will the market reward bigger devices and thus force a response at that new size). By and large, though, the next decade will be about convergences rather than divergences, especially as enterprises go through a period of restraint (again).

  • http://twitter.com/chrispycrunch Chris Lau

    Great ideas, Don! You would think blogging is on the decline, but web traffic shows that blogging (specifically wordpress traffic) and youtube is alive and well. The three pillars you mention are excellent topics to continue, specifically IT careers and technology. 

    Each pillar fits with the “new” IT of social networking, linkedIn. Topics on Careers would fit with LinkedIn groups.RIM’s demise? It’s a given because everyone believes that to be the case. It’s difficult to reverse a trend once it is not in your favor. This is why an ad spend by RIM will be ineffective. It is best to focus on existing strong markets, which is Indonesia, India. I recently started to give BBM Music a second try (i installed it bug ignored it). In just TWO days recently, I added  120 contacts, gained access to 4,000 songs. The only thing RIM can do at this time is to entrench its BBM population until BB10.