Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Is Web 2.0 A Bigger Threat Than Outsourcing?

Posted by Zonk on from the need-to-change-the-shirt dept.

An anonymous reader writes "According to InformationWeek, Web 2.0 is even worse than outsourcing for IT jobs. The article talks about corporations that have laid off IT staff and replaced them with technologies like mashups and wikis that can help people get things done without involving IT. Most IT people still think Web 2.0 is an overhyped buzzword, but that might not matter: So many Web 2.0 apps are sold (or given away for free) by software-as-a-service companies like Google that people can bypass IT altogether, and IT might not even know until it's too late."

4 of 331 comments (clear)

  1. Automation is always a threat by EmagGeek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It doesn't matter what the industry is. Automation is always a "threat" to jobs. But, people still work in the auto industry, and people still work in IT. You can look at automation two ways. You can view it as a threat to yourself, and you will be one of the poor-attitude IT workers that get laid off. Or, you can look at automation as a tool to let you get more done, and you will be one of the self-motivated go-getters that can be a VP of Technology since you don't have to bother yourself with peon work anymore.

    1. Re:Automation is always a threat by Qhue · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Poor attitude among IT folk is a much bigger threat than Web2.0 or indeed anything else. In order to guarantee job security our local IT have declared hegemony over all technology and introduced labor-intensive blockades that keep them busy...so busy that any concept of innovation completely passes them by! When everyone walks around with a dangling ring of USB flashdrives because trying to get networked fileshare space is a major hassle and ridiculously expensive ($3k for a 1 gig partition charged to your overhead budget!) and technical leads start forwarding proprietary email to gmail because of 250 meg limits on Outlook then the overall opinion of IT folk is going to collapse.

  2. Re:The web 2.0 cloud blaghosphere by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    No! You don't understand: Web 2.0 will synergise key technologies into a mashup Wiki that will enable customers to drive their own solutions and manage SOA n-tier applications without any requirement at all for infastructure, oversight, management or maintainance! Using AJAX will save you 110% each quarter on IT spending. It will make you coffee, fetch you donuts and give you a blowjob! Web 2.0 is here to save the universe! Everyone get connected!

    If you think that's neat just you wait for the symantic web on handheld supercomputers. I hear that will be ready only 15 years from now!

  3. Re:Mashups? by discord5 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Exactly how are "mashups" a technology?

    Gigantic robotic arms with huge potato mashers. Once every year they set them loose around the office down here, and everyone screams and runs. The survivors get a raise, the widows of those who didn't make it get a ham. Best teambuilding event ever, especially when you're screaming "Every man for himself!" at the top of your lungs while avoiding the masher.