Random thoughts - Editor's Note - Networld+Interop Conference

Exactly just what is a knowledge worker? Am I one? Are you? Is the secretary in your office? How about the guy on the ladder repairing your electrical?

The term knowledge worker irks me. Why? Well, first, because it is redundant. All workers possess knowledge--of the jobs they do and of the world around them.

Secondly, the use of the term seems to be limited to technology industries, some sort of elitist title that only people in tech jobs are worthy of claiming. Do techies possess more knowledge than people in other jobs, or do they just possess different knowledge? Does that different knowledge make them somehow more important, as implied by the term?

If the term is pretentious and redundant, let's put it where it belongs--in the round file. Now, let's talk about another inane term, "human capital" ...

While the Networld+Interop conference and trade show in Las Vegas in May showed the effects of the technology downturn, attendance and interest on the exhibit floor was better than expected. Exhibitors mostly were cautiously optimistic. Although traffic on the exhibit floor was not as intense as past N+I spring events, this can be attributed to companies sending fewer people to the show.

Let's face it, a lot of the people attending trade shows in the past were not always the people exhibitors want to spend their time with anyway, and their absence should not be construed as less interest on the part of companies in purchasing networking products.

A problem the organizers of N+I may have, however, is the cost of exhibit space. The price of more than $60 per square foot had a number of exhibitors complaining and reassessing next year's commitment to the show. Organizer Key3 Media Group might want to review its pricing, which is considerably higher than for exhibitors at SUPERCOMM, as well as give deep thought to the viability of holding two N+I shows each year.

As expected, attendance and exhibitor totals were down at the Atlanta SUPERCOMM show last month, but numerous speakers, including Sprint Chairman and CEO William Esrey, did their best to put a positive spin on the spiraling telecommunications industry. Esrey's message: "Industry shakeouts are as good as they are inevitable."

Esrey predicted a 4% annual growth for the telco industry through 2005, while, at the same time, disparaging the "disproportionate reaction" of analysts and investors. "Business cycles occur" in all industries, he said. "The landscape is changing--at warp speed. The Edsel is dead; it's time to move on."

Ken Anderberg

kena@comnews.com

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