IP: WORTH THINKING ABOUT: THE COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS (fwd)

[Owen Byrne]

User expect this, users expect that ... but they're never willing to
pay for anything but the quickest and dirtiest solutions.

There was a piece in the Economist recently where IT workers were described as
technologists, in a group below "doctors, lawyers, and
accountants. (i.e. professions)" - think auto mechanic, nurse.  I
was bristling by the end of the piece.

I wrote a paper in some HR course about the history of professionalism, and I think
that before you can achieve any of the above, you need to concentrate on what
doctors did to raise themselves above barbers (which once upon a time
was their full time job).

And its very simple - barriers to entry. You need a closed-shop union
like the AMA or the Bar Association before you can be perceived as
"professional." If a precocious 13 year old decides he's intelligent
enough to practice medicine, he gets arrested. If a precocious 13 year
old decides to go into the IT consulting business, he'll get written
up in the newspaper.

Professionals expect their professional societies, first and foremost,
to limit the supply of new professionals.

Owen