Last week I was at B&N, on the shelf the following four magazines were in a row. It doesn't take a rocket scientist pick up on the (over-hyped) trend in the cover stories.
- Time, March 1, 2004 -- "Are Too Many Jobs Going Abroad?"
- Economist, Feb 21-27, 2004 -- "The New Jobs Migration"
- Business Week, March 1, 2004 -- "Software: Will Outsourcing Hurt America's Supremacy?"
- Fortune, Feb 23, 2004 -- 10 Top Tech Trends to Bet On
Wait a minute. "Which one is not like the others?"
At first glance, it appears the Fortune one is the odd one out. But it's the one that really addresses the truly disruptive changes to the software, and other technology, industries even more so than the commoditization of highly skilled labor.
The Fortune cover story highlights China and open source among the top 10 trends. While we are bemoaning the lost jobs to India and Bulgaria, China is quietly setting their own standards in every aspect of technology. They are a big enough market that one day soon, we might be following their lead. Then there is the proliferation of open source. Regardless of your stance on open source, it could well end up having a broader impact on the software industry than cheap Bangalore software testers. In fact, open source as one of the top 10 tech trends the only one that garnered it's own full article in the same issue -- a special report on innovation.
And the same day, I got a link to these articles in my inbox too.
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