On 12/01/2012 08:12 PM, Michael Torrie wrote: > On 12/01/2012 04:54 PM, Dave Smith wrote: >> I've been thinking a lot lately about the downturn in user group meeting >> attendance and mailing list participation over the last few years. Today I >> graphed Plug's mailing list activity from 2005 to present (messages per >> month), and noticed a startling coincidence. >> >> Is this causal or merely correlated? Did other groups see a similar downturn >> in mailing list usage? > > I also noticed towards the end of my time at BYU that finding good > student help for system administration was virtually impossible. Even > finding decent web developers was a challenge. I don't know why, and > don't know if it's related to your group participation downturn. > That trend has only strengthened since you left. I blame Web 2.0 (with maybe a hint of iPhone/smartphone). It has changed the course of those who would have become thoughtful, introverted geeks, and made them into superficial, narcissistic dweebs instead by providing the false sense of a social life.
Or it could just be that the Linux and Open Source movements have become so successful, that the young are trained and employed long before they hit college. I doubt this is the case though, as a long-time friend of mine from the BBS days recently told me his best programming candidates take one look at the company's programming litmus test and say, "I just google till I find an answer, and then copy and paste it." "Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop." ;-Daniel Fussell /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
