IT's Growing!!

[Islandman]

OK cool. I am 100% with you there. Its just that i was getting the impression with terms like "icing on the cake" and "just a way to improve process" that you saw it as more of a "nice to have".

Yes people do tend to get over-excited about what technology can do or fix, especially in the short term. However in the medium to long term the impact is real and major.

To use your dot com bubble/bust era as an example, a lot of what was promised then, 15 years ago, is just coming to reality now where startup companies like Uber and Airbnb are literally disrupting major industries like hotel accomodation and urban transportation . But it takes a while to get it right and for all the other connectng parts of the economy to be ready.

In 1999 there was the internet but was no such thing as a smart phone or mass networking via social media. Today with those things available to the general public a lot more opportunities exist to disrupt old markets via ICT.

[Don1]

Alright mr. don, we closer than yuh think, just not as big as you think it is.

evvyting kriss if yuh waan think small... but mi nuh limited lika dat cause ah revolution mi ah defen' yuhzimi.

yuh waan tinker but Bad Man nuh tinker... wi disrupt

[Stonigut]

Good points, especially with uber and Airbnb, it is a major disruption but the advantage is merely a slight opening of the door and will only last so long, we already see conventional companies starting to change to take advantage of this and the numbers of players in the market increase the margins of profit start to go poof, thus at the end of the day you are just looking at a process improvement that everyone who survives will make, it changes the game, but the players that get thrown out are replaced by new more nimble players as in the case of the two examples you named. Nothing has really changed fundamentally as the products in both cases remains the same, just the speed of response and execution is better and the consumer actually reaps the greatest benefits, especially in the two examples you named.

[Assasin]

good post.

[Stonigut]

Cool, just remember this is not a true disruption it is merely a tightening of the process already in place across the board, a sharper knife that will get dull very quickly. Like going from horizontal rollers for pressing cane juice to vertical rollers which allows a higher rate of extraction thus higher productivity per acre of sugar cane, changes the game until everybody starts adopting the same, a process improvement for a period of time, you are right that we have to step up and change or get left behind I am saying that is a given and that this change is not a panacea just another step, there is no magic. And what cr has done is adopt the same old paradigm thus they get left holding the bag as al they really got was some high tech employment for a few years, there is little true vertical integration into. The cr economy, so as an example I don't really rate it.

[Islandman]

Agreed but I would also add that a large set of "dead" assets which would lay around idle most of the time, in these two cases it would be vacant rooms and idle cars owned by individuals, now potentially become productive assets at short notice. That is no small thing as it smooths out the demand/supply peaks for those services.

The end product/service that the consumer demands does not change much but the barriers to entry collapses and when that happens you get major disruption which results in the need for new business models as the music, newspaper and book industries have discovered.

So to say nothing has fundamentally changed is a bit of an understatement. I think for the people invested in those industries a whole lot changes. You know how much those big city taxi medallions cost? Them not too happy with new age companies like Uber and they will fight it as long as they can.

[Don1]

LOL! Not "true disruption"??? Yuh tink ah Silicon Valley dis????? You're suffering from the foreign mind mentality. Sing yuh sankey and return home Stoni

Jamaica would kill for an IT sector boosting GDP by 10% and exports by 30%.. that would be beyond disruption in our circumstances. Everything is relative.

Since you have no skin in this particular game it's easy for you to be dismissive... yuh juss return to yuh a/c & seedless grapes when yuh ready

But if you want something to "rate" try the Indian IT industry...yes the same example of mine you conveniently ignored

[Stonigut]

Don1 the ten percent boost is not real it is a phantom and the export number as well, what you think the number is going to be now that Intel and Boa are out. Cone on bredrin I know you know this, that is just a shell game, you always telling me bout taking the red pill but it seems you are caught in the matrix of deception on these numbers. When cr firms contribute that to gdd and exports I will be on bended knee, hat off offering profuse praises, until then, just a corporation shell game.

[Don1]

I understand the point you're struggling with but you're hung up on semantics now Stoni.. "real" or "not real"
Countries like JA & CR have to play the hand Babylon deals

By your reasoning most Jamaican industries..e.g. tourism, bauxite, manufacturing (what you seem to regard as the real economy) would be "not real" since:

* The value added is extremely low
* The import content is very high
* The FX leakage is very high and retained earnings very low
* They show almost zero native innovation but depend 100% on imported tech
* Backward/Forward linkages to other sectors are very limited
* They depend on government subsidies or tax breaks
* Investors can shut down operations at will
* Both foreign and local investors export much of their profits abroad and reinvest virtually NOTHING in R & D

The fact that Costa Rica's IT industry may share some or all these characteristics with mainline JA industries is just a reality of how world economics works... or doesn't work for us. Dats how Babylon run di ting

Your singling out of the Ticos IT industry for being "not real" or a "shell game" when all is does is mimic the typical so called 3rd world operation (also prevalent in Jamaica) is disingenuous

The big, crucial differences with IT is that (1) it's a knowledge industry and (2) IT will be by far the most dominant industry in the 21st century. Once the foreigners pass the knowledge to locals.. it is retained and can be leveraged whether or not the operator leaves

If Jamaica or CR hope to progress in this century we MUST have a stake in the IT industry... even if you don't "rate" the stage we may be forced to start at. Development is a journey ...not a pit stop

[Jawge]

LOL you got help Finally whew. I'm just a spectator here.