NY Times Editorial on Globalization and Computing

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

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Subject: NY Times Editorial on Globalization and Computing
Date: Wed, 01 Mar 2006 09:18:01 -0500
From: Peter Harsha <harsha () cra org>
To: dave () farber net

Hi Dave,

For IP?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/01/opinion/01wed3.html

EDITORIAL
Computing Error
Published: March 1, 2006

The outsourcing of computing work overseas may not be as bad as you
think. In fact, it probably isn't bad at all. Consider one recent
study that says the problem isn't so much the competition from high-
tech workers in places as far-flung as India and Romania as it is the
discouragement caused by the doomsayers themselves.

The Association for Computing Machinery, the professional
organization that issued the report, says that there are more
information technology jobs today than at the height of the dot-com
boom. While 2 to 3 percent of American jobs in the field migrate to
other nations each year, new jobs have thus far more than made up for
the loss.

Think of the local companies that service people's home computers in
towns all over America, the way mechanics have long worked under the
hoods of our cars. When three people start a company, it attracts no
fanfare, but put such companies all together and there is a big
effect in aggregate. The Small Business Administration says that
those smaller enterprises provide around 75 percent of the net new
jobs added to the economy.

And when a big company slowly adds workers to a new division because,
say, the middle class in India is buying more high-priced gadgets,
the move garners little attention. Globalization advocates have long
contended that everyone benefits from greater growth worldwide.

That picture, of course, stands in contrast with the more familiar
gloomy depiction of runaway outsourcing. Perhaps that explains what
the report says is declining interest in computer science among
American college students. Students may think, Why bother if all the
jobs are in India? But the computer sector is booming, while the
number of students interested in going into the field is falling.

The industry isn't gone, but it will be if we don't start generating
the necessary dynamic work force. The association says that higher-
end technology jobs — like those in research — are beginning to go
overseas and that policies to "attract, educate and retain the best
I.T. talent are critical" to future success. Given the post 9/11
approach to immigration and the state of math and science education
in America, that is hardly encouraging.

Information technology jobs won't go away unless we let them.
Computing in the past five years has become, according to the report,
"a truly global industry." In the next few years, jobs won't just
land in our laps. We have nothing to fear but the fear of competing
itself.


- --
Peter Harsha
Director of Government Affairs
Computing Research Association
1100 17th St. NW, Suite 507
Washington, DC 20036
p: 202.234.2111 ext 106
c: 202.256.8271
CRA's Computing Research Policy Blog: http://www.cra.org/govaffairs/blog


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