[TriLUG] [OT] What's the value of IT?

[William Sutton]

What, exactly, are you looking for?  The ability of IT to provide 
information support services to help a company be more efficient?  The 
actual IT services businesses implement to accomplish their goals?  The 
(in)efficiencies involved in IT work?  The relative quality of the IT 
personell or equipment used in a business?  The managerial practices that 
help or hinder the IT support?  The effects of open processes versus 
closed processes (or software, systems, etc.)?  There is an awful lot of 
material you could cover (and some of it has been covered in one form or 
other, such as design patterns, Brooks, Blunden, etc.).

I'm inclined to provide thoughts/material for name credit only.

William Sutton

On Fri, 8 May 2009, Phillip Rhodes wrote:

> Hey guys, I'm looking for some thoughts from some of you.  But first, in the 
> interest of full-disclosure, let me give you the back-story and the thought 
> process that led me here:
>
> I am no longer working for Lulu, as of last week.  So right now, I'm trying 
> to decide what's next for me career wise.  I may wind up taking
> another full-time job, but I'm giving a LOT of thought to going freelance 
> (and if not now, very possibly in the not-too-distant future).
>
> Anyway, thinking about something a fellow Tri-LUG'er said to me about the 
> need to connect the value that I possess (in terms of skills and
> knowledge) with their needs led me to spending a lot of time thinking
> about what companies (small / medium companies in particular) really need 
> from IT.  And that led me to backing all the way up to the fundamental 
> question of what value IT brings in the first place.
>
> I'm so fascinated with this question now, that I am actually thinking about 
> writing a book on it (independent of whether or not I make a career change). 
> Or even if it doesn't turn into a full-fledged book, maybe a whitepaper or 
> two.
>
> So, all of that said... I'd appreciate any and all thoughts that you guys 
> might care to share on exactly how IT (and I'm using the term in a *very* 
> general sense here, basically anything that uses a computer) is
> used in small/medium businesses, how it adds value, what your experiences 
> (good and bad) have been, etc.
>
> To anybody replying to this:  Can I ask you to include a note about whether 
> or not you're willing to license your response under the GFDL and/or Creative 
> Commons by-sa licenses?  If I do actually write a book - or use this stuff 
> any otherw way, I'll release the finished product(s) under one or both of 
> those licennses.
>
> I've also got a wiki set up for keeping notes on this topic.  If anybody 
> wants to get more involved and edit the wiki directly, please let me know.
>
>
> -- 
> Phillip Rhodes
>