IT Shortlist 2007: in Print and on the Web
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By Tinham, Brian  Shortlist 2007 is Manufacturing Computer Solutions' annual reference directory of computer hardware, software, ICT consultancy and service providers. Our objective is to make your task of finding and shortlisting IT suppliers as fast easy and successful as possible.
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Looking back on a year of advertising innovation
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Another year of milestones and launches, and what do you have to show for it? A rekindled resolve to make your career in IT more worth your while this year in terms of the pay you take home.Sure, there have been upticks in pay for IT pros since the downturn, as the 2007 InfoWorld Compensation Survey attests. And yes, projections by analysts such as Robert Half Technology suggest brighter days ahead for some of your tech cohorts. But who is content with playing the law of averages when it comes to compensation?[ For a granular look at compensation trends, see: 2007 InfoWorld Compensation Survey: Personal gains and personnel woes and 2007 InfoWorld Compensation Survey: By the numbers ]Especially as the art of cashing in on added responsibility requires more than just the desire to earn more money.Especially as reports from analysts such as Goldman Sachs, JMP Securities, and ChangeWave "indicate that credit crunch and fears of a possible recession have convinced IT execs to rein in spending in 2008," as InfoWorld blogger Bill Snyder noted in a recent post.And everyone knows what executive budget anxiety means. Yet another increase in outsourcing -- and in particular, offshoring, which 2007 InfoWorld Compensation Survey results suggest will reach a tipping point in 2008, with more companies tapping offshore labor than not this year.The time to marshal your plan for raking in more dough is now. Here, you will find a wealth of valuable InfoWorld resources to help make your career in IT more rewarding in 2008.Project management pays For the nearly one in three tech workers concerned about job security, Snyder serves up worthwhile advice on avoiding jobs ripe for outsourcing in 2008: Hone your project management skills."Jobs that combine business-savvy with technical expertise will remain; purely technical positions are vulnerable," writes Snyder, whose Tech's Bottom Line blog takes a financial tack in navigating IT.But if spearheading a project this year is the best means for bagging a promotion or raise, how best to get your hands on one?Here, Dan Tynan's advice is timeless: Hold your nose and raise your hand by volunteering for projects nobody else wants to do and then excelling at them. Tynan's "20 ways to get promoted in the tech industry" is rife with get-ahead nuggets, chief among them the need to raise the bar and leave it there, as consistency in overachievement reaps more rewards than does excelling in fits and starts.Take the torch, but don't get burned For those hoping to cash in on heading up a project in 2008, forewarned is forearmed: Taking project management responsibility without authority and just saying yes to expanding requirements are two of IT's seven deadly career sins."The current corporate obsession with project management is nothing more than a realization that here is a great place to stick people with no technical or personnel management skills and get them to take the blame for failures," security consultant Robert Ferrell says in the aforementioned career sins article.Thus, defining your 2008 breakout project on your terms is essential, lest talks with your boss about taking on more responsibility result in you being saddled with a losing proposition.[ For a look at some award-worthy endeavors, see: 2007 InfoWorld 100 Awards ]As important will be avoiding the pitfall of resorting to prior solutions when tackling your new challenge, as former InfoWorld CTO Chad Dickerson advises in "Top 20 IT mistakes to avoid."Every project presents its own set of challenges, Dickerson writes, and stepping into the spotlight without the ability to increase your arsenal of ideas and methodologies will be a one-way ticket to high-profile embarrassment.Make more by moving on But for some, the thought of contributing above and beyond the already above-and-beyond requirements of an employer that just doesn't get the value of IT is enough to put "new job" atop the list of this year's resolutions.After all, as the 2007 InfoWorld Compensation Survey found, executive management's perception of the value of IT is the worst in years, thanks in large part to perpetually stingy budgets and expense-minded approaches to IT.Thankfully, with analysis such as Robert Half Technology's supporting 2007 InfoWorld Compensation Survey findings that the IT job market looks relatively healthy going forward, there are outlets for the more than one in four of you likely to be combing the classifieds this year.Differentiating yourself from the pack of prospects, however, will be your biggest challenge. InfoWorld contributor Bob Lewis emphasizes the "six Ps" -- product, price, place, promotion, production, and people -- in becoming your own IT career coach, an approach he suggests will help you capitalize on worthwhile opportunities.Market your skills Lewis -- whose Advice Line blog regularly doles out expert career insights ranging from dealing with bad bosses, to making the most of multiple opportunities, to negotiating salary, and exiting a job gracefully -- notes that getting your foot in the door is a matter of defining exactly what you do best and finding a marketplace where those services are in short supply.And once you have a bead on 2008's dream job, Nick Corcodilos advises thinking like an investment banker by taking a profit-minded approach to interviewing.Corcodilos, a tech headhunter, provides advice on convincing managers to take a chance on you, how to beat low-cost competition for a job, when to take a pay cut, and how to deal with difficult questions from prospective employers regularly in his Ask the Headhunter blog."The reason people fail in most interviews is they're interviewing for the wrong jobs," Corcodilos says. And in advising you to not chase job listings, Corcodilos points out that what is hot in the IT job market is ephemeral; what matters most is becoming the best at what you are good at."Being hot means you will watch the market go up and down, while your talents go in just one direction: up," Corcodilos writes in a recent blog post.Brush up and avoid burnout Of course, keeping current on cutting-edge technologies can't hurt, especially as the call for broad IT skill sets will only grow louder in the coming year.Taking a practical approach to bringing new technologies such as AJAX development in-house will not only show management you are keen on remaining relevant in the years to come but will also send a message: Grow with me, or I will find an employer better suited to my career needs.Here, that old saw, training, can never be overemphasized."If spending $2K now means a $20K bump down the road, that's a pretty good return on investment," David Blair says, referring to personal investments in cutting-edge training in Tynan's "20 ways to get promoted in the tech industry."?Besides, making a commitment to keep on top of skills trends in 2008 will widen your net beyond the scope of traditional IT shops, to the once-again lucrative, though always risky startup job market.[ For tips on finding work at a particular search giant, see: How to get a job at Google ]And for those whose end-of-the-year reflections bummed them out with the thought of another year overworked in IT, heed Lewis' advice on dealing with burnout when you return to work:"Tomorrow, see if you're capable of putting in an intense productive workday. If you can, then you're de-motivated. If you can't, then you're suffering from some level of burnout."Additional resources 2007 InfoWorld Compensation Survey: Personal gains and personnel woes 2007 InfoWorld Compensation Survey: By the numbers  20 ways to get promoted in the tech industry IT's seven deadly career sins  Become your own IT career coach  Nailing the interview: A headhunter tells how  How to get a job at Google Targeted training keeps IT workers sharp  Strategic IT talent: Offshoring is not the answer  How to get a job at a hot startup How to avoid jobs ripe for outsourcing Is IT working hard for the money? Women in technology: A call to action Bob Lewis: Advice Line Nick Corcodilos: Ask the Headhunter Bill Snyder: Tech's Bottom Line The Salary Landscape InfoWorld Salary Calculator 2006 InfoWorld Compensation Survey
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Blog: Web directory is light on content and features.
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STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Businesses in Sweden, Ireland and Britain top the list when it comes to the use of information technology to improve their operations, according to a country-by-country survey. The United States, which was in the top three last year, slipped four places.
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The latest edition (December 2006 issue) of the International PHP Magazine has been released today.   Topics covered in this month's edition include:  Graeme Johnson and Zoe Slattery - "PHP - A Language Implementer's Perspective Elizabeth Naramore's "Freelancers Corner" Matthew Peters' look at the application Component Architecture (SCA) in PHP Arjen Lentz's look at Open Source solutions to more IT problems.  You can check out the full table of contents for the issue on their site or you can go over and download a full copy of your very own.
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Lukas Smith has posted his review of a book from Packt Publishing - "PHP Web 2.0 Mashup Projects: Practical PHP Mashups with Google Maps, Flickr, Amazon, YouTube, MSN Search, Yahoo!"   Duane from Pakt asked me if I would be interested in reviewing a few books for them in my blog. I picked "Mashup Projects" from the list of just released books, since I am interesting in the topic and I am actually going to give a presentation at the internal "PHP Day" we are doing at Optaros in November.   He points out the good (good writing style, well-chosen examples) and the bad (a log list of errors and oversights in the code). He also talks about the contents of the book - the different examples and the final more major project. Overall though, he sees it as a good book, one that would be a good introduction to mashups for PHP developers (if you look past the formatting issues).
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Taking a page from OSS for improving interagency collaboration.
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Teaching search engines to see Web pages the way people do could improve their performance.
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Graceful breakup announcements, photogenic small animals, outrageous slurs: a look back at 2007.
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Safend, an international provider of endpoint i
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Search headlines from around the web, December 27, 2004.
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Before heading over to the Web 2.0 conference at the Palace Hotel in SF this morning, I couldn't resist doing some more digging into alternate user interfaces for news reading based on the NY Times keywords.  One thing I learned the hard way is that when you access the Times site from a script (not through a browser) if you try to read an article that's too old (not sure what the time limit is) it tries to redirect you to a login page (which is pretty pointless considering that there's no human being around to log in). I hit this problem yesterday, and then hit it again this morning, but couldn't remember what the problem was. So by writing it up this time I hope to remember.  No doubt some debunked hack journalist posing as a tech industry mogul will slander me for this, but the asshat asshole has no idea how blogging works, and who the fuck cares what he thinks anyway. "cheesecake"
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Notable developments in the IT industry, present and past.
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An introduction to XML and DocBook: what is it and why should I learn yet another data format?
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In a new blog post, Ligaya Turmelle reminds us about the Call for Papers that's still open for this year's OSCON - but not for much longer.   Anyway, here is the link for submitting a proposal and the currently listed tracks include Linux, PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, Java, Databases, Desktop Applications, Web Applications (client-side and server-side), Windows, Administration, Security, and Emerging Topics.   The deadline for entry is this coming Monday, February 5th (2007) and all entrants much submit the form for their entries to be considered.
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Google is in the online ad-service business. Why does it lavish attention on software developers and open-source projects? Kicking offline Web apps into gear