Red Hat has just established an academy in Egypt. It will be offering the curriculum that is part of Red Hat's certification program. Students are able to attain their RHCE at the academy. Details of the program can be found here.
A smart move on Red Hat's behalf to set up these academies internationally. They continue to gain widespread adoption of RHEL by international enterprises, and this is a great way to create a talent pool that ensures qualified candidates for these companies.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Are Open Source Developers More Satisfied in Their Jobs?
There is a very interesting conversation that has been taking place on the Apache mailing list over the last week. Grant Ingersoll is trying to collect feedback from engineers that either develop or utilize open source software. He is interested in learning whether or not they are happier in their position than engineers that are working with closed sourced software. Therefore, do open source engineers gain more satisfaction from their accomplishments? Do they have a feeling of contributing to the greater good? As a result, are they more engaged than their counterparts working with closed source software? It is a very interesting question to say the least. And, one that companies should pay attention to in the recruitment and retention of their employees.
One of the responses that summed it up best was from Michael McCandless. Ultimately, he stated that even though he has worked with both open and closed source software, he inherently felt greater satisfaction from his work with open source software. He went on to post a link to a YouTube video that puts together a nice illustrated story of why people that contribute to open source software are more satisfied in their job. It is very entertaining, and the artist is quite good.
Ultimately, I concur with the videos assessment. If you empower your employees and their work results in assisting other people achieve a goal, it is an uplifting experience for the developers. It becomes a commitment as opposed to a job. The end result is more satisfied employees that contribute to a successful organization.
One of the responses that summed it up best was from Michael McCandless. Ultimately, he stated that even though he has worked with both open and closed source software, he inherently felt greater satisfaction from his work with open source software. He went on to post a link to a YouTube video that puts together a nice illustrated story of why people that contribute to open source software are more satisfied in their job. It is very entertaining, and the artist is quite good.
Ultimately, I concur with the videos assessment. If you empower your employees and their work results in assisting other people achieve a goal, it is an uplifting experience for the developers. It becomes a commitment as opposed to a job. The end result is more satisfied employees that contribute to a successful organization.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Staffing Firms Lose H1-B lawsuit
I had written a post about this lawsuit when it was first filed. It appears that these technology staffing firms have lost their battle to continue utilizing H1-B visas for contract work that they have available. A full update of the ruling can be found here.
This ruling will play a significant role for the future of contract staffing. What will happen with the positions that these contractors have to vacate? Will they be filled by U.S. citizens or Green Card holders? Will the positions move offshore so the current contractors can continue in their positions? It would be very interesting to know the end result.
As much as I disagree with the way that some of these consulting firms have operated, whereby they take up the allotment of H1-B visas without having suitable work for each visa participant; I am also fearful of another wave of positions potentially moving offshore. And, the possibility exists of losing much needed technical workers that prefer to remain in the United States. I know this can be a sticky subject depending on which side you fall on, but it goes without saying that in future years we will need to continue to import talent that we lack internally in the United States.
This ruling will play a significant role for the future of contract staffing. What will happen with the positions that these contractors have to vacate? Will they be filled by U.S. citizens or Green Card holders? Will the positions move offshore so the current contractors can continue in their positions? It would be very interesting to know the end result.
As much as I disagree with the way that some of these consulting firms have operated, whereby they take up the allotment of H1-B visas without having suitable work for each visa participant; I am also fearful of another wave of positions potentially moving offshore. And, the possibility exists of losing much needed technical workers that prefer to remain in the United States. I know this can be a sticky subject depending on which side you fall on, but it goes without saying that in future years we will need to continue to import talent that we lack internally in the United States.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Interesting TidBits From Accenture Survey About Use of Open Source
In a recent survey compiled by Accenture, it was found that 29% of companies that utilize open source software actually contribute code back to the open source community. Meanwhile, a survey done by Zenoss found that 98% of companies utilize open source software in some capacity. A good overview of the results can be found in a PCMag.com article found here. From my vantage point, both numbers are a little interesting. I am a little surprised that the number of companies that utilize open source software is as high as 98%. There is no question that adoption of open source software continues to thrive, but 98% is a very large number. At the same time, I am surprised that 29% of companies actually contribute back. That seems high to me as well. In a majority of our searches, much greater than 71%, these companies have no plans of contributing back to the open source community. Thus, the ongoing challenge that has persisted for years. Without question, more companies have realized the benefits of contributing back to the open source community over the years, but there is still a long way to go.
Where this gets interesting, from our perspective, is in recruiting. I do not believe companies are fully aware of how their lack of contribution back to the community affects their attraction and retention of candidates. Of the most talented engineers that we come across, a majority make it a stipulation of their job search that the position allow them to contribute code to the community. Therefore, does the company that disallows such contribution put it at a competitive disadvantage? From my standpoint, it is a definitive yes. Therefore, I believe that companies will continue to wise up and realize this phenomenon, but there are still many hurdles to get over . Meanwhile, the companies with a progressive open source contribution game plan will continue to gain a competitive advantage over their counterparts in the attraction of the most talented engineers in the marketplace.
Where this gets interesting, from our perspective, is in recruiting. I do not believe companies are fully aware of how their lack of contribution back to the community affects their attraction and retention of candidates. Of the most talented engineers that we come across, a majority make it a stipulation of their job search that the position allow them to contribute code to the community. Therefore, does the company that disallows such contribution put it at a competitive disadvantage? From my standpoint, it is a definitive yes. Therefore, I believe that companies will continue to wise up and realize this phenomenon, but there are still many hurdles to get over . Meanwhile, the companies with a progressive open source contribution game plan will continue to gain a competitive advantage over their counterparts in the attraction of the most talented engineers in the marketplace.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
CIO's to Increase Hiring
CIO Update just came out with a summary of the hiring trend for the third quarter. The data was collected by Robert Half Technology. That was my old stomping ground years ago, albeit on the financial side, and their data is usually spot on for the most part. You can find the summary here.
In essence, it appears that CIO's are slowly looking to bring on more IT staff. This has not been a V-shaped recovery that a lot of people like to talk about. Instead, it appears more U-shaped if you ask me. And, it follows in-line with what we have been seeing. Since the first of the year, we have seen an increase in positions. But, one must remember where we were coming from, which was pretty much nil. Therefore, any increase is an increase no matter its size.
The trend is upward, and at this point that is all we can ask for. On average, a 6% increase in hiring in the technology field for the third quarter. At the end of the day, it is not time to dance in the street, but hopefully it brings more people out of the street and back into the employment market. Let's hope this trend continues.
In essence, it appears that CIO's are slowly looking to bring on more IT staff. This has not been a V-shaped recovery that a lot of people like to talk about. Instead, it appears more U-shaped if you ask me. And, it follows in-line with what we have been seeing. Since the first of the year, we have seen an increase in positions. But, one must remember where we were coming from, which was pretty much nil. Therefore, any increase is an increase no matter its size.
The trend is upward, and at this point that is all we can ask for. On average, a 6% increase in hiring in the technology field for the third quarter. At the end of the day, it is not time to dance in the street, but hopefully it brings more people out of the street and back into the employment market. Let's hope this trend continues.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Canonical Going Solo For Their Ubuntu Certification Program
Canonical has decided to go it alone in unveiling their new certification program. Up until this time, they have collaborated with LPI. The full press release can be found here. It will be interesting to see if this will eventually increase corporate demand for this certification. Up until this time, not surprisingly, the RHCE reigns supreme. Let's see if Canonical can put a dent in Red Hat's domination of this market.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Companies Grapple With How Much Leeway to Provide Outside Developers
A very interesting article was recently published by BusinessWeek. In it, Dr. Joel West and Dr. Siobhan O'Mahony share their research on the difficulty companies have had in creating a rich open source community based upon projects that have been initially developed internally.
On the surface, putting code out in the public domain sounds like a great idea. Take code that was written internally, release it, and then have engineers from far reaches of the world fine tune and enhance it. What could be better than that? It is the ultimate way of efficient engineering.
In general, the model works. Plenty of companies allow their employees to contribute mightily to a number of leading open source projects. That has had a profound effect on how we have been able to get to where we are today. However, the focus in this case is the success of projects developed internally with the hopes of being a success externally. That has posed a great challenge to a number of organizations.
So, why is it rare that there are so few successful projects that have originated within a company's four walls? As they discuss in the article, it is all about control. Even though there are a lot of companies that will market themselves as open source believers, and many of them may be, they still have difficulty when it comes time to provide developers freedom to tinker with their code.
Whether this is due to them following the advice of their legal departments, one can only determine that on a case by case basis. However, one thing is for sure; as great as the open source development model is, it still faces challenges from the inherent proprietary nature in which businesses have primarily been built.
On the surface, putting code out in the public domain sounds like a great idea. Take code that was written internally, release it, and then have engineers from far reaches of the world fine tune and enhance it. What could be better than that? It is the ultimate way of efficient engineering.
In general, the model works. Plenty of companies allow their employees to contribute mightily to a number of leading open source projects. That has had a profound effect on how we have been able to get to where we are today. However, the focus in this case is the success of projects developed internally with the hopes of being a success externally. That has posed a great challenge to a number of organizations.
So, why is it rare that there are so few successful projects that have originated within a company's four walls? As they discuss in the article, it is all about control. Even though there are a lot of companies that will market themselves as open source believers, and many of them may be, they still have difficulty when it comes time to provide developers freedom to tinker with their code.
Whether this is due to them following the advice of their legal departments, one can only determine that on a case by case basis. However, one thing is for sure; as great as the open source development model is, it still faces challenges from the inherent proprietary nature in which businesses have primarily been built.
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