Friday, June 19, 2009

Fantastic Open Source Institution

Here is an article about Seneca College's School of Computer Studies that explains how their embrace of open source software has paid huge dividends for their students.

I have stated over the years that open source software provides an institution the opportunity to become relevant again. There was a time when computer science majors thought it was a waste to be in school, because the things they were learning were out of touch with what was happening in "the real world". Well, that no longer needs to be the case. And, Seneca is a perfect example of that. They are allowing their students to engage in an open source project in a meaningful way, and thus their students are well prepared after their time spent at this institution. Kudos to you Seneca College for realizing the benefits open source software can have on the relevance of an institution of higher learning. Hopefully, we will see more colleges and universities south of the Canadian border following your lead.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Good Summation of the Job Market

Here is a survey that was released last week that provides an update on the labor market at the moment. There are a lot of them out there, but this one lines up pretty strongly with what we have been seeing. In a nutshell, it is fairly stale at the moment. Periodically, there are small signs of life, but the sense of urgency from corporations is not there at the moment. Thus, the positions that are open tend to remain open for a period of time. Hopefully, this mind set will change as we move into the third quarter.