A Call for Changing of the Guard: A Problem of ICT in the Caribbean Region

As I have travelled through the Caribbean region, as well as parts of Latin America, I have found a commonality within the English speaking regions that are somewhat difficult to ignore. It seems lesser in the Spanish speaking regions, and I do not know yet that it is true in the French and Dutch speaking regions.

The problem, to a large degree, seems to be the 'Old Guard of Information Technology'. I can write of this pretty sensibly; I've seen it in the English speaking regions of Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, St. Lucia and now Guyana. I've seen it in the Spanish speaking regions of Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Panama, while Nicaragua didn't seem as affected. I've especially seen it in the United States, and even as I considered advertising in Guyanese newspapers about available Open Content, a parallel with advertising and technology became apparent. But first, I'll write about what I've seen.

Old Guard of IT

Wherever I have travelled through what are considered to be developing nations, Information Technology and ICT lag the United States.

This year (2005), I have seen at least advertisements for Visual Basic programming jobs - which may not seem bad, unless you consider that Visual Basic 6.0 is not Visual Basic .Net, and that Microsoft will not be supporting Visual Basic 6.0 in the near future as part of their 'upgrade for our profit' policy. I've seen new systems being written in Visual Foxpro 4.0, when Visual Foxpro 9.0 was recently released.

I've seen dBase III databases developed in the last 2 years - which was abandoned in 1985 - 20 years ago.

While I'm a strong Linux and Free Software/Open Source advocate, the greater issue to me is the creation of legacy systems as 'new' systems in these areas. Systems that are incompatible with systems of other regions of the world are easily built this way; systems that limit the abilities of the users and developers are created this way - as well as systems which are increasingly difficult to maintain, and therefore more costly to maintain.

It's alarming that someone would choose to use old tools for new jobs (nevermind illegal copies of old tools) when the old tools are no longer supported. The question must therefore be raised - why is it happening?

The answer is that there is an Old Guard of IT. The 'why' of the Old Guard of IT is best answered by 'who' the Old Guard of IT are.

Who Are The Old Guard of Technology?

The 'Old Guard' don't have a specific age, race, creed or language. They exist everywhere... though they seem more likely to exist where there is less of a technological market. In fact, they thrive where there is less of a technological market because they keep the technological market downgraded so that they can control it - usually so that they can continue making a living with minimal effort, much like software developers writing Spaghetti code so that nobody but them could understand it.

I have personal experience with this. My late Uncle Amar, in Trinidad and Tobago, wrote a payroll system which filled in the voids of illegal copies of Peachtree Accounting, Quicken and other packages. He wrote it in an archaic database language that is unpopular, and limited the application to running under DOS. I naively tried to get him to allow me to get it to work on Microsoft Windows and Linux, so that he would have a larger market. He didn't want that. He wanted control of those systems, and he gained that control through his reputation and thus trust of his clients. His clients simply trusted him when he told them that they had to run Windows 98 or lower. Though I love and respect my late Uncle, he was a part of the Old Guard - and through his reputation, he handicapped and continues to handicap businesses based on his word alone.

The reason he did this? Survival. He didn't want to learn the new technologies - they were not a solution for him, they were a problem. Was he stupid? Most certainly not! But he used that intelligence to limit what others could do so that he could make a profit - and in his case, this meant groceries, paying bills and sending his son to school. In a way, it was right; he needed to get paid in a software market where people usually did not pay for software. He tried other methods - in the 1980s, he wrote original code and even delivered the source code to clients. I know, I helped him. But when the PC Revolution came, it came with all the software that you could copy (and you could copy ALL of the software, as you still can).

My Uncle's story, I expect, isn't too different from that of other members of the Old Guard of Technology. The used what they could to survive piracy, or to profit during periods of piracy (a very important distinction).

Therefore I can empathize - but that empathy does not become sympathy, especially in the context of Information Technology today. The reasons for things being this way have passed.

Now - with Open Source and Free Software technologies available such that developers and IT Professionals can charge for services instead of commoditizing spaghetti code. The same is actually true of proprietary software, though that requires purchasing the software so that it is not as much of a liability. So why does the Old Guard of Technology still exist?

Imagine a world where an IT Manager would tell a non-profit organization that they cannot use iMacs that were donated to them, which can run the same software, which can be easily networked because TCP/IP is a standard beyond computer hardware and software. Imagine an IT department which cannot spare anyone to learn how to use a content management system because they are busy creating a Visual Foxpro database that is obsolete even as they write it. Imagine telling people that they cannot upgrade beyond Windows 98SE because they need DOS to run applications.

Courses for Microsoft Windows litter television stations, but even those 'schools' are trying to modernize technology. Unfortunately, people read 'Microsoft Windows' and think that they are all the same - as if training on Windows 3.1 would help someone administrate a Windows 2000 Network. The fact that the most robust servers are running Linux is not known to most people; there are no advertisements about it in the region and the people who are trusted - the ones with the Microsoft logo imprinted on their chest - seem to be running illegal copies of Microsoft Windows, and will tell you not to use things that they cannot profit from (another aspect of the Old Guard of IT). I've even seen illegal copies of Microsoft Windows in institutions training people for Microsoft Certifications... So they 'steal' from Microsoft while kidnapping the future, and holding it ransom.

That advertisements from the United States, where Microsoft litters the airwaves as they did New York City with paper butterflies, people generally think that Microsoft is the only option they have. In fact, the Ministry of Education in Trinidad and Tobago, right after the FLOS Caribbean conference in 2003, announced a deal with Microsoft which was made without looking into other options.

Imagine an IT person telling their boss that the computer system cannot do what the organization needs to do, when in areas where IT is more competitive IT people have to be regularly reined in so that they don't do too much too fast

I don't need to imagine. I see it all the time. And they use whatever influence they have to assure that they keep their jobs - a reasonable proposition - by holding back the organizations that they work with or for. The latter, of course, is unreasonable - and unprofessional.

Why The Old Guard of IT Still Exists

The Old Guard of IT still exists because of many reasons. First, it's easier for there to simply be no change - why work harder for the same amount of money? The new technologies require an IT professional to stay on top of the latest technologies. This is a new paradigm in many parts of the developing world - where IT people actually have to continue their education through reading and practicing new skills with new technologies.

If these technologies cost money, I would be sympathetic - but almost all of these technologies - through piracy or FOSS, are available at no cost. Much of the documentation - if not all - is available in the same way. It simply takes time and effort to stay on top of these things and be able to provide solutions for employers and clients.

The second reason that the Old Guard of IT still exists is because they are the ones who train new people at organizations. They keep their apprentices busy doing things which do not allow them to grow - indeed, they make the new people less marketable and train them in things which guarantee that they cannot work at a modern company.

The third reason that the Old Guard of IT exists is that the organizations that they work with or for trust them because of their experience within the organization. There are interpersonal, interdepartmental and even extra-organizational ties of loyalty and trust which have been strengthened over time. Friendships, business contracts and organizational reputations weigh in heavily.

With such strong reasons for the survival, though, how does one go about changing the guard? And more importantly, how can people be assured that they are not dealing with a member of the old guard?

Breaking the Inertia of the Old Guard of IT

The hardest thing to do when dealing with the inertia inherent in dealing with the Old Guard is, simply, to look around and see what others are doing. If your databases are still in dBase III, then something is wrong. When you have more than 10 machines and there is no network, then something is wrong. When it takes 2 months to develop a simple database, something is wrong. When your IT department isn't asking for new tools and a larger budget, something is wrong.

In some instances - such as large scale banking - systems do not change. Deep in the heart of New York City's financial district, Mainframe Computers still churn out data, and it all works because the system hasn't changed - though the mainframe computers are now part of a network. This means you can keep your mainframe, but you should modernize the network it is on. But if you're modernizing an organization, there is absolutely no excuse for using antiquated software. None. The IT people should be asking you for funding for the latest technologies, and they should be producing things quickly - with an overall goal for your organization laid out simply and easily.

So how do you deal with this inertia? Make research part of their job description, and when they tell you something cannot be done - get a second and even a third opinion and do something different: listen to them.

The Old Guard of IT exists because of the evolution of Information Technology; it is no different than any other Old Guard. The questions every organization should be asking are:

Is it worth changing?

Is it worth not changing?

Is it worth having our business intelligence tied up in something that nobody else understands and can support?

Is the friendship I have a liability to my organization?

Am I allowing someone to kidnap the business intelligence of the organization?

At the end of the day, the Guard will change. It has to. It always does. And when the Guard changes, some of the Old Guard will be upset - they always are. Fewer will realize that it's the natural order of things. Even less will bother becoming part of the New Guard. It's just history repeating itself - and denying it by not taking action simply holds back your organization.

Would you prefer a surgeon who had the latest skills and tools for a brain tumor? Or would you prefer someone who still uses stone implements and can't differentiate between left and right?

I hear the cost of burial is the same. Of course, one could argue that living longer could be more expensive and if that is a concern, there's always Doctor Jack.