Colin Charles Agenda

Twitter as a micro-news outlet
The other day, I was on a train, and witnessed something interesting - 3 drunk blokes were chatting up girls, got a little violent (throwing rubbish at people, asking a bloke to vacate his seat, etc.), and the cops were called in. Then, we stopped at Parliament and stayed there for about 40 minutes. On the last train of the night. Turns out, being an underground train station, a lot of other trains were backlogged, so Ben Barren told another train driver what the situation was, all thanks to the power of Twitter. What it looked like on Twitter - thanks Cris, aka Mr. Skitch :)

Google Code for Educators
Here comes free courseware, created especially for CS educators. There are currently tutorials on AJAX Programming, and Distributed Systems with sample course content as well. Video lectures exist just as well. So if you’re a busy professor, or sitting in a CS faculty and wondering what’s new and what might be hip to teach this semester, consider the Google Code for Educators site.

The Podcast Network
Cameron Reilly is the host of an amazing show, G’Day World, and he’s also the convenor for the Melbourne Online Digital Media. The other thing he’s done is create the world’s first podcast network (The Podcast Network - TPN). An interesting interview with him in an issue of the Australian Anthill, titled 24-hour podcast people. Cam’s a really interesting bloke to chat with - from podcasting to Facebook to Second Life.

Squeezed Books
One of the things I do after reading a management book, or biographies, is write summaries of my thoughts and take notes about it in my blog in my books category. This is what Squeezed Books is all about - summaries of books. If you’re too busy, or just want a summary before reading the book, this might be the exact site for you. Take for example the summary of The Tipping Point - now, when I write my quick summary/review, I’ll have to write less text :)

Technorati Tags: twitter, micro-news, news, google code, educators, podcast network, cameron reilly, squeezed books, book summaries

Today I received most interesting mail from a training company in Australia. They want to use some of my (dated) open courseware, and obviously, I gave them permission. What was amusing was how they approached the situation: “We are prepared to not make a profit but will realistically have to cover printing and admin.“

Yes, they’re a training company. And this was from their Business Development Manager. How many out there think the courseware should be brought up to scratch, for modern versions of OOo and Linux?

Under a modern version of the CC license, though I’m not sure how many people are out there happily not-attributing and ripping me off, as we speak. Maybe just PDFs, and no sources? Definitely interested to hear anyone’s thoughts on this (via email, even).

Technorati Tags: training, courseware, open courseware, openoffice.org, linux, amusing

BuilderAU released a recent article titled Developer skills outlook 2007: What’s hot for employers. There are a few things to take away from the article, that seem to apply not only to Australia, but elsewhere.

“The biggest issue that we see generally speaking is that the overall skill level of the developers is not where it needs to be,” said Jeff Pope, Asia Pacific vice president for Agitar Software.

The general idea of skills shortage. And its not that there’s a shortage of people in the market, the universities and TAFEs are churning them out by the dozen; its the lack of highly-skilled people. So where should aspiring IT people aim to spend their passion and hone their talents and ambitions in 2007?

It would seem that it’s in the Java and C# markets. Web 2.0 hasn’t taken off in Australia yet (probably because of the lack of ubiquitous availability of the Internet), but its an emerging market and Internet-based companies will be pressured to have lots of JavaScript-goodness.

And FOSS fans, don’t worry, you’re not left out: the LAMP jobs are a calling as well.

“There will be an increase in the number of companies using MySQL, PHP, and Linux as it gives them control over the development cycle and total costs, and reduces some of the sunk costs,” Manzoori said. “Developers with skills and passion in these areas should consequently be in demand.”

Average salary survey for 2006

Remuneration is always a key motivator, and Hays has released their annual salary survey. Junior testers are expected to start off at a little more than a full-time checkout-chick at Coles!

In Part II of their article, which circled around certification, there are some interesting points to take away from it as well. About how motivated, quick learning, and finding new information quickly, are key things a good developer needs. Having a string of papers or titles behind one’s name might not necessarily be the best solution, as experience is also valued over paper qualification. This is where Australia, clearly differs from Asia (in a good way).

Just under two more months till 2007 is here. If thinking about training & certification, especially in the open source arena, I can heartily recommend the LPI, and the MySQL 5.0 Developer & DBA certification, mainly because of cost (you can get an LPI proctor to give out the papers, to save even more). If you have a bit more coin, one of the Red Hat offerings are bound to be useful too.

Here’s hoping you have a prosperous new year, in getting that dream job and dream salary (maybe thanks to your newly developed skills).

Technorati Tags: australia, certification, salary survey, skills, training