muraPOI: December 29, 2014

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  • What’s wrong with the movie industry’s release model? That artificial scarcity thing, is, well, artificial!

    “But what’s clear is that every other form of entertainment is getting easier and cheaper to consume, except theatrically released movies. And this is absolutely going to catch up to the industry sooner or later.”

    (Via @wfvanvalkenburg, Forbes, What ‘The Interview’ Accidentally Taught Us About Digital Film Distribution, December 27, 2014)

  • If the research in the IEEE Spectrum article titled “The STEM Crisis Is a Myth” by Robert N. Charette is to be believed, the “STEM Labor Shortage” is not one simply of numbers. There are more than enough graduates each year to cover the annual vacancies.
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    Supply vs. Demand

    Source: IEEE Spectrum, used under fair use

    STEM Workforce Supply vs. Demand

    Unfortunately, after that clearly presented fact, the author wimps out and doesn’t draw the connections he probably should and inserts his personal opinion at the end of the article. If you combine the obvious number of vacancies (and assume that companies aren’t padding their openings for other reasons, which is possible), with radical change in the way companies do (or don’t as the case may be) provide training and try and retain employees the way they used to, I think it’s reasonable to understand the problem as that there is a shortage of the “right” STEM competencies. While the need to learn on one’s own has been an aspect of software development for at least the last twenty years, I’m beginning to understand more of the scope and scale of the problem in all other industries. I’ve been doing more work in engineering education again, and have been collaborating on community college and workforce development projects and see the efforts underway to address this lack of the “right” preparation.
    (Via IEEE Spectrum, The STEM Crisis Is a Myth, September 2013)