RE: The Greying of COMMON

I find this very interesting.  As a young (well younger than most
anyway) member of the midrange community in Australia I have been able
to take advantage of the breadth of experience and knowledge in the
midrange community.  I have been lucky, however, to find good mentors
and work in environments where learning on the cutting edge is not only
encouraged but required by the business.   I don't see this as the
general situation in the midrange community.  The AS/400 is an amazing
platform; adaptable, dependable, easy to develop on, and function rich.
Too many IT Depts stifle the development of their programmers and ops
staff by ignoring the massive potential of new developments.  The
knowledge in the hands of Senior APs, IT & Ops Managers, and experienced
DP staff should be handed on and shared.  Too many IT staff build little
empires with their knowledge and refuse to share on the basis that it
threatens their indispensiblity.  IBM, COMMON, and the more experienced
members of the midrange community need to cooperate on several fronts:
promote the AS/400 as not only a viable midrange option but the midrange
option, educate new computer science and information technology students
and graduates about the benefits and challenges of working in the AS/400
industry, and push IBM further onto the cutting edge of technology to
ensure the AS/400 maintains and expands its market share.

                                                                James
Turnbull                
                                                                AS/Tech
Consulting

> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Carr [SMTP:74711.77@compuserve.com]
> Sent: Thursday, 2 October 1997 7:40
> To:   Midrange-L
> Subject:      The Greying of COMMON
> 
> The first revelation happened while I was talking to a
> person standing in line behind me.  I’ll call him Dick.   Maybe you
> saw
> him.   He stood out from the other people in the room.    He was
> charged
> up,  he was excited,  he radiated energy,  he had his own company, he
> was 
> 24 years old!  Just as it is true for the AS/400 professional market
> place
> in general,  COMMON too on an average has gotten older.   I realized
> that
> the energy that once permeated and drove COMMON was youth!
> 
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