Notwithstanding bible references, to be part of the 550 at Fairfax is perhaps not a choice club. For those in the club is means you will lose your jobs. I think it is important to acknowledge that to lose ones job is a terrible thing and those who make those decisions should be damn sure it's not a cut because they havn't done their job properly. But I cannot help and feel that in much of the media coverage (including that owned by Fairfax) a key important point is being understated.
I think it is fair to say that for most people in Information and Digital Technlogy it is all very strange behaviour.
As a rule we apply, if our currently employer does not value what you have to offer we move onto another one who does. If the content we are receiving is crap, we stop visiting that website. And maybe for good measure we blog about how crap it is. Generally we just move on. A single year of employment at one Digital company is a-long-time for anyone in our industry. We come from the land of languages that are born, change and die in the space of 4 years. As such we are constantly learning, not always because we want to, but for our survival. The very idea of not skilling ourselves as our market changes is seen as a mostly foreign and crazy way to live. It is what you do in our industry and for the most part we are actively encouraged by our employers to do so.
Let me point out that I do not believe in the concept of Market Equilibrium nor the idea of the Economic Rational man (or women for that mater). We, in Information Technology, are the living children of what Baumann Zygmunt would see as the gift and curse of the post-modern world. I in part have always agreed with his view of the liquid modernity. We are actors who become at once responsible for our actions in life (as we regularly re-skill ourselves and seek out opportunities in the market for gain) but as a cost of this 'right to choose' mentality, our action or inaction conversely forces us to accept that if we 'make the wrong choice' we are ourselves responsible for the failings that may occur. There is no state to catch us, no collective humanity that will help us, no union that we look to negiotate collectively on an outcome.
Maybe in the future when our industry is in decline we will need some other recourse of action then moving on to the next thing. Our social and economic status between and amongst those is Information Technology may begin to show as our individual bargaining power declines. Maybe people in the print industry are looking at these digital cowboys and girls thinking, "don't they realised that one day..."
Ok I've clearly digressed. Again. My point is this;
So I look at the 550 and I wonder why their union did not fight for skilling their members into the Digital Information age. Information Technology is, for now, an industry in Australia that has room for more highly skilled people with very readily transferable skills. We need editors, writers, content managers and producers of digital content. We need content designed specifically for the mobile age that meets the needs of our growing market. Slaping a big journo's article on the web can no longer cut it. So I say come on over, you don't even have to dress formal. Jean's and a 't!
- Print publications around the world are shrinking. Fact.
- Once mobile operators in Australia stop charging 3 billion a meg in data changes, mobile content delivery will be the medium AND the message. Spectulation.
I think it is fair to say that for most people in Information and Digital Technlogy it is all very strange behaviour.
As a rule we apply, if our currently employer does not value what you have to offer we move onto another one who does. If the content we are receiving is crap, we stop visiting that website. And maybe for good measure we blog about how crap it is. Generally we just move on. A single year of employment at one Digital company is a-long-time for anyone in our industry. We come from the land of languages that are born, change and die in the space of 4 years. As such we are constantly learning, not always because we want to, but for our survival. The very idea of not skilling ourselves as our market changes is seen as a mostly foreign and crazy way to live. It is what you do in our industry and for the most part we are actively encouraged by our employers to do so.
Let me point out that I do not believe in the concept of Market Equilibrium nor the idea of the Economic Rational man (or women for that mater). We, in Information Technology, are the living children of what Baumann Zygmunt would see as the gift and curse of the post-modern world. I in part have always agreed with his view of the liquid modernity. We are actors who become at once responsible for our actions in life (as we regularly re-skill ourselves and seek out opportunities in the market for gain) but as a cost of this 'right to choose' mentality, our action or inaction conversely forces us to accept that if we 'make the wrong choice' we are ourselves responsible for the failings that may occur. There is no state to catch us, no collective humanity that will help us, no union that we look to negiotate collectively on an outcome.
Maybe in the future when our industry is in decline we will need some other recourse of action then moving on to the next thing. Our social and economic status between and amongst those is Information Technology may begin to show as our individual bargaining power declines. Maybe people in the print industry are looking at these digital cowboys and girls thinking, "don't they realised that one day..."
Ok I've clearly digressed. Again. My point is this;
So I look at the 550 and I wonder why their union did not fight for skilling their members into the Digital Information age. Information Technology is, for now, an industry in Australia that has room for more highly skilled people with very readily transferable skills. We need editors, writers, content managers and producers of digital content. We need content designed specifically for the mobile age that meets the needs of our growing market. Slaping a big journo's article on the web can no longer cut it. So I say come on over, you don't even have to dress formal. Jean's and a 't!
The whole gen "Y" thing about kids not staying loyal to a company and moving on when things no longer suit them. And I think we've learnt this because companies show no loyalty to us. They threaten us, cut us, and push us. They need to be taught.