Presented by Professor Moshe Vardi, Rice University,
Co-Chair, ACM Task Force on Job Migration
Computer science and technology have been incredibly successful in forging a global market. Through these tools, the IT industry has:
Created innovations that have driven data and voice communication costs to almost zero
Added Web features that provide information to anyone, anywhere, anytime
Driven hardware costs so low that this technology is affordable in developing countries
Developed standardized curricula, and made educational material widely available
Agreed on software standards that enable different machines to communicate
Globalization has resulted in billions of people joining the free-market world, and dozens of countries joining the World Trade Organization. This trend has produced a world where not only are goods globally tradable, but so is labor, which can be sent over a wire rather than physically relocated.
Much recent media coverage about globalization gives the impression that IT jobs are moving in droves to developing nations. Prospective computer science students are aware of the offshore-outsourcing phenomenon, and many argue that it is partly responsible for the continuing drop in computer science enrollments in developed countries.
ACM's Job Migration Task Force undertook a study of offshore outsourcing. The study's findings, released earlier this year, point to continuing growth in the U.S. IT sector, but they also signal intensifying competition within the global IT market. The study urges increased investment in education and innovation to sustain the nation's competitive edge.