Global Software Economics
Howard A. Rubin · The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries · 2000
It took the Year 2000 crisis to force the global community to finally understand the need for a global view of Information Technology (IT) and its interactions with business, government, the military, and society.Business leaders, technologists, and government officials (even the United Nations) are all scampering to get a composite view of global risks, regional risks, national risks, and local risks related to IT.People are looking for definitive answers to basic questions such as Which country has the highest dependencies on technology?Who is safe?Will basic infrastructure components work?If the problem had to do with finance and not systems, it is very likely that answers to analogous questions such as --Which country has the highest financial transaction rate?Which country has the most stable financial market?Which country has the most robust financial infrastructure?-would be readily available.The problem today is that while everyone agrees that computers and IT play a major role in the global community and the global society, we have never treated and viewed IT from a global viewpoint.In fact it is fair to speculate that one could not register for a course in Global Software Economics (or IT Economics) at any of the premier business schools of the world.Play the Global "You Bet Your Job!" So suspend your concerns about the Year 2000 problem, the Microsoft lawsuit, or the merger of the day and take a moment to image yourself as a contestant on a new "techno-game-show" entitled "You bet your job!"As the CIO of a multi-national U.S. based company you feel confident in being able to compete with other contestants from smaller companies and the internal contingent on the show.Looking around the set, you see all sorts of video conference, satellite, and Internet gear.There's a strange signal and the first question appears on the virtual host's (VHOST, for short) workstation screen --What country has the most software engineering professionals?Easy, you think as you send your answer into the cyber-audience space, "The United States".You are right.You've seen this ranking the Wall Street Journal...U.S. first, Japan is second!The next category comes up.It is PERFORMANCE.The question comes across, "According to the 1995 Worldwide Benchmark Project, what country's software engineers are the most productive?"As 16814835, 2000, 1,