A few weeks ago, the St. Petersburg Times published an article on Russia's desire to shift their export-base from natural resources to more information technology based exports. There are some startling trends within Russia that should be eye-opening to the developed world, lest we find ourselves in a similar situation a quarter century from now.
A university professor typically earns $250 per month, said Vladimir Tikhomirov, rector at Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics and Information. To draw qualified IT specialists away from jobs in industry, he said, universities must offer at least $4,000 per month.Luring young professionals to a teaching career with promises of a $2,000 monthly salary by the time they are in their forties is not going to work, Tikhomirov said.
Doesn't that just make you eager to run out and get your passport and visa so you can teach in Russia? It should also make us wonder what it will take to get the best and brightest into US universities as the current generation of IT professors retire and the resource pools we must draw from are highly paid IT professionals.
There is more. Recognizing the speed of change is another verse in the Dragon's Tale song...the technology clock and the generation clock run at inversely disproportionate speeds. Catching up will be a challenge:
“We live at a time when ideas and technologies are changing faster than generations,” said Vladimir Kinelyov, director of UNESCO’s Institute for Information Technologies in Education in Moscow, speaking at a recent round-table conference.Five percent of the country’s work force, or four times the current ratio, will be employed in IT by 2008, when the industry is set to make up 10 percent of Russia’s gross domestic product, or double what it is today, according to government projections.
As we (the US) continue to look at outsourcing technology, I wonder if we are not prematurely exporting a resource that should be protected and valued as highly as our natural resources. 'Heavy stuff for a Tuesday morning...but food for thought.