News from PANUG - July 11, 2001 http://panug.org info@panug.org SURVEY by Gregg Berkholtz PANUG President Periodically, PANUG surveys its membership to see if we can improve the services we offer. This helps us figure out how to help you with your career by planning appropriate monthly meeting topics and education events. Be as verbose as you like. We'll summarize all the comments we receive and publish them on a web page. TECHNICAL SKILLS What technical skills do you think people should have these days that will make them attractive to employers? Are there uncommon skills (that most people don't have) that you think would be valuable in the future to distinguish you from the rest of the workforce? If you company employs programmers or hires contract programmers, what languages, tools, and development environments are preferred? YOUR COMPANY Do you think that the security and reliability of your company network is getting better or worse as time passes and new technologies and products find their way into your company? What is your company's position on the use of Open Source Software? Has your company's attitude towards Microsoft and their products changed recently due to such things as the Department of Justice case, stiffer licensing policies, XP being tied to hardware to enforce licensing, Microsoft's plans to prevent automatic software distribution using third-party products, etc? What was your company's reaction to the letters and phone calls you may have received recently from the Business Software Alliance and Microsoft about pirated software, amnesty programs, and discounted software licenses? Do you have any comments about the costs of computing in your company? For example, is computing a greater expense (as a percentage of revenue) today than it was in the past? WIRELESS Is your company using or planning to use wireless LAN products such as wireless Ethernet? If so, how concerned are you about security and what are your plans for preventing evesdropping? CERTIFICATION PROGRAMS Are vendor certification programs, such as those from Microsoft and Novell, still held in high regard by your employer or employers in general? Does your employer waive certification requirements under some conditions? For example, can some college degrees substitute for vendor certification? If Linux finds its way into your company, do you think your employer will require Linux certification? If so, which Linux certification program do you think your employer will accept?