Can IT Professionals Become Savvy Networkers?

Photo: Society of Internet Professionals presents: eMarketing Optimization, March 2011

This article, authored by Cory Popescu, SIP Writers Forum, is for the IT / Internet Professional, but it is equally applicable to anyone, as we use computer and mobile devices in all aspects of our lives regardless of our profession.

In many world economies, relationships are crucial to interact and to integrate in the society. One of the most used means to integrate in the society is by obtaining a position to contribute to the economic and social development as: employee, employer or investor in all their types and forms. Obtaining those positions may require networking with people.

Networking with different professionals for any purpose might seem difficult for Information Technology persons who by the nature of their work may generally appear reserved, quiet, reclusive.  However, solutions exist to provide the IT professionals with amazing tools to find their new work place.

Nowadays one of the most used equipment at least in the developed and emerging economies is represented by the devices which run a variety of software applications for different aspects of our lives. The existence of a plethora of social media sites benefit networking between people of all walks of life. For the IT and Internet professionals these ways of communication appeal because they offer the capability to:

• Reach others effortlessly and conveniently. Accessing computers, laptops, iPads, iPhones and other electronic devices becomes easier than ever and it can be done from anywhere worldwide.
• Use devices and tools that the IT professionals know the best.
• Do networking with a higher degree of comfort. The IT professionals hone their networking skills by accessing first what they are most familiar with: technical equipment and software.
• Do networking at their own pace. Especially when they become part of an event, depending on the person, the technical people think that they would have to keep up with the activities of those occasions which most of the time involve personal interaction. That might be an inconvenience for the IT professionals who might withdraw themselves in the middle of the networking opportunity or interact with only one or two participants. Conversely, while accessing the social media they might simultaneously get several new acquaintances involved to engaging conversations and to obtain a desired result.
• Higher degree of freedom during their networking conversations with other people over the Internet. Since the IT professionals feel highly comfortable accessing software, they could keep that level of self-assurance to communicate with new people through the very software that they have just connected to. Thus, they have the ability to develop challenging conversations, enhance the ideas expressed and comfortably influence the outcomes of those conversations.

While the IT professionals use the social media and the Internet to network for endless opportunities, they develop the skills to contact and maintain valuable new relationships. Consequently, and contrary to popular belief, using what they know the best the IT professionals can become proficient at networking and part of a new and lucrative opportunity exclusively through internet interaction.

Cory Popescu

Your comments are welcomed

Click on the links below to read the other articles by Cory Popescu:
Health Concerns of IT Professionals 
How Internet Helps Machine Learning

How Internet Helps Machine Learning

Collage: Vassily Kandinsky, Soft Hard /machine learning

Credit: wikipedia.org: Vassily Kandinsky, Soft Hard, 1927 - Molle rudesse

This article, authored by Cory Popescu, SIP Writers Forum, is for the IT / Internet professional, but it is equally applicable to anyone, as we use computer and mobile devices in all aspects of our lives regardless of our profession.

As humans delegate more tasks and responsibilities to machines, machine learning becomes integral part in structuring and remodelling daily business while combining both novel and traditional business approach. Generally, machine learning represents an application of rules and algorithms which delivers meaning to the analyzed data proposing a solution for the end user.

The Internet presents numerous and robust possibilities for the new programs, apps, devices that embed machine learning allowing the accessing of both data and the tools needed to generate the proper solutions to specific audiences.

Depending on the strategy selected, the machines with learning capability can employ unsupervised learning which allows the devices to use different types of algorithms and receive no feedback.  These algorithms can also be relatively easier to find on the Internet collections of algorithms and /or structures.

The Internet can help machine learning connect with the Internet data-sets in an effortless manner due to a variety of reasons, such as:

•  Direct communication through networks and not a central hub: as inherently known, communication across the networks and between two points becomes possible forthright and open using the internet. In some cases, web sites protection disallows contact. However the connection can be established through sets of privileges and permissions and the end result enables the findings of relevant and specific data.
•  Extensive volume of data and high amount of players on the internet who generate and create large databases. These data sets can be accessed either randomly or non-randomly through a variety of devices which include collections of complex algorithms. The algorithms applied in machine learning are data-driven. Through machine learning, the devices access and examine huge databases so that, for example, they can monitor and optimize the performance of industrial equipments.
•  Particular processes of machine learning, from non-random examples, based on cases exposed on the internet. The more cases, the better, therefore more adequate solutions appear. Since the processes include the use of algorithms, it implies operational accuracy to analyze and interpret the data. Being processed by machines, the huge batches of data do not represent an issue in part due to dramatically increased computational speeds and also due to the approach to data selection.
•  Complexity and diversity of internet searches and novel ways to find the appropriate tools required. Through the machine learning, series of algorithms and methods apply to representative data sets in order to derive relevant meaning for specific results. The internet searches have improved continuously and significantly. One criteria is represented by how fast Google indexes web site pages and updates the additional information found in these indexes. For the past several years this indicator has increased more than 50,000 times. Another criteria represents how fast the visitors can get their responses when accessing the web pages. Over the recent several years, this has increased at least seven times which implies that faster responses, more performant and more computers exist in the Internet's networks. 

The few features provided by the Internet and enumerated above enable the machines to employ the crucial task of learning to deliver reliable, accurate and rapid solutions within the Internet of Things. In many areas of the economy and in the society in general, combining machine learning, traditional business and data analysis techniques to provide such solutions unquestionably stand within reach.

References:
UCLA: Center for Digital Humanities: Machine learning, stories and the Internet

KDnuggets: The 10 Algorithms Machine Learning Engineers Need to Know

Google: Search Console Help: Webmaster Guidelines

Cory Popescu

Your comments are welcomed

Health Concerns of IT Professionals

Screenshot: Google Search special featured snippet: Health Concerns of IT Professionals

This article, authored by Cory Popescu, SIP Writers Forum, is for the IT / Internet professional, but it is equally applicable to anyone, as we use computer and mobile devices in all aspects of our lives regardless of our profession.

IT people spend most of their lives at the office, sitting at the desk with the eyes on the pixeled screens. While IT work is only office work, many times stretching after regular business hours produces a significant number of health issues, whether related to physical or mental diseases. In essence, solutions to correct these health issues exist and this article presents some of the issues along with their possible remedies. The article is based on several actual cases from daily life and on the research described in the references of this article.

Some of the health concerns for people who spend long days, perhaps weekends and their entire working life in an office environment, could be related to physical and mental illnesses. In general certain areas of the body are affected and in particular it weakens the vital organs of the body.

Most common health issues, according to the research exposed in the references material below, seem to be the musculoskeletal disorders of wrists, arms, shoulders, neck, back, other ailments  such as cardiovascular disease related to vital organs, and others related to the mental state.

In the upper part of the body, eyes represent a crucial part to helping IT professionals succeed in their work. When eyesight gets weaker while intensively using the computer screens, the employees require eye protection and aids for reading earlier than workers in industries where the use of the computer screen is not so extensive. There are IT professionals undergoing vision improvement due to regular use of yoga exercises with a mix of mental alertness and relaxation techniques.

The vital organs that could be affected more refer to: liver, stomach, kidneys and heart. These ailments may be connected to eating significant amounts of junk food at irregular hours and to continuous loads of stress to meet the frequent deadlines. Due to longer hours at the office and sedentary lifestyle, healthy eating and healthy sleeping habits are often neglected. More so, in time, tight deadlines and constant top-down or sideways pressure to meet the requirements for customers, management, or other departments of the company  in the case of large corporations, lead to heart diseases found in a large percentage of IT professionals.

In order to heal the sickness, people visit the family doctors and/or the specialists in hope of a quick cure. Sometimes, it takes long before the body recovers, and sometimes it does not become completely healthy again. Some IT professionals have become acquainted with alternative ways to heal the body and keep it at a constant level of good health. These ways refer to easily accessible practices such as meditation and yoga which can even cure, if applied constantly and correctly under proper guidance, and they are favorably fit to prevent the ailments while developing your acute sense of awareness.

As we already know, it is far easier to prevent illnesses than to cure them. Therefore, the discipline to follow instructions to prevent musculoskeletal disorders and further on other illnesses is crucial to help your body cope with long hours at the desk using the computers. Some companies create special rooms for relaxation and exercise and some have included gym rooms in their buildings. Use these facilities at your will, consult with your management as a harmonious combination of physical workout and intellectual projects can only lead to effective results as concerns your health and work productivity.

References:
National Database of Indian Medical Journals: Prevalence  of  Occupational  Diseases  in Information  Technology  Industries  in  Goa

US National Library of Medicine. National Institutes of Health: Health problems and stress in Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing employees

Computerworld: Health hazards for IT workers -- how that desk job wears your body down

Cory Popescu

Your comments are welcomed