Recent news articles are rife with confusing--and often conflicting--reportage on the state of the IT job market.

by Maria DeGiglio

On Friday, May 23, I participated in the commencement ceremony at Sarah Lawrence College. I was awarded a Master's Degree in Health Advocacy with all the rights, privileges, and honors pertaining thereto. Me, the anthropologist turned retail executive and then IT systems analyst, consultant, and industry analyst (the latter for more than a decade) and now health advocate. (In over 25 years, I have reinvented myself several times.) Today, IT professionals should expect to reinvent themselves throughout their careers. This is critical to ensuring job security. The IT industry is dynamic; so too must the IT professional be.

The fifth annual global software piracy study finds signs that enforcement is working, but emerging markets are getting their start on PCs with unlicensed software.

By Chris Smith

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) released its fifth annual global PC software piracy study this week, and the numbers are mind-boggling.

According to the study, which was conducted by IDC, one of the industry's leading global market research and forecasting firms, losses from piracy reached nearly $48 billion in 2007, some $8 billion more than the prior year. There was an optimistic note in the report, however, since piracy was found to be declining in 67 of the 108 countries included in the report. Even though only eight countries had piracy rates that were increasing, they also happened to be countries where PC use is growing rapidly.

Conserving energy is more than a slogan today; it's a way to affect the bottom line.

By Chris Smith

There seems to be some debate about whether it makes sense to develop green, or environmentally sound, business practices. I love it when I read in a competing publication, or any other computer magazine, that the writer thinks that "going green" is a fad and that savvy business leaders will make decisions based on bottom-line economics, not whether a policy saves energy or reduces a company's carbon footprint. Hello? Have you not noticed the price of oil lately? I say I love to see such articles because it means that readers of these other publications will be coming over to subscribe to our own in a couple of months when they realize the level of thinking that they are getting in their current read.

"i for Business" is attracting community and vendor support.

By Thomas M. Stockwell

The announcement on April 2, 2008, that IBM has created the new Power Server brand, combining both the System i and the System p, took few analysts by surprise. But a key question still remained: How would IBM's loyal System i community react?

Though we're aging, embracing change may be a ticket to staying young.

By Chris Smith

The System i has attracted an interesting mix of individuals, a fact brought home only too clearly last week by the death of Al Barsa Jr. and the reactions people have had to his passing. This is a tight-knit community, and the outpouring of grief that has been expressed since the loss of one of its leaders is remarkable.

What does cloud computing have to do with the System i? It may be more than you could imagine.

Have you ever noticed how a passing cloud can sometimes be nothing more than a cloud, but at other times can be the start of a significant shift in the weather? That observation is an important one to apply to a recent announcement from IBM called Blue Cloud. Considering what sources close to the computer giant are saying, this is one cloud that could turn into a climate-altering experience for System i users.

With the open-source approach to software and business models becoming so popular, what does it mean for proprietary-driven businesses?

The software industry is a completely different beast than it was just a few years ago. The open-source philosophy has forever transformed, and continues to shape, the way that proprietary vendors approach their customers.