Although there is much talk about information technology and outsourcing in Bangladesh, the real situation is quite dire. We speak of high hopes and huge earnings, but the reality is very harsh. At least those working in this sector know the truth. Despite facing many issues, our core problem is that we cannot produce quality technologists.
The technologies taught in our educational institutions are very outdated. By the time we enter the technology sector with this knowledge, what we’ve learned becomes practically useless. To overcome this, technologists have to be self-taught. Those who can quickly learn on their own are progressing. But those who cannot learn without good trainers are falling behind.
Admittedly, a lot can be learned online these days, but having someone by your side—someone who truly understands the technology and knows how to solve problems—makes things much easier. The outsourcing jobs we bring in are often very basic. We are unable to create skilled technologists for new domains. We prefer swimming in the red ocean rather than the blue ocean (this is a business strategy model). We focus on areas with intense competition (red ocean), whereas we spend less time on areas with less competition that require us to develop ourselves (blue ocean). As a result, we are forced to compete by lowering prices. After repeated reductions, we end up with no profit, sometimes even losses. The best example is the garments sector. Unfortunately, our IT sector is moving forward with much the same strategy.
When I used to teach at North South University, I once assigned students a homework project to find out how late top technologies are adopted in our country—it turned out to be about eight years. This gap may have decreased now, but it still exists.
To overcome this dire situation, my suggestion is that we need to quickly learn new technologies, take up work in those areas, and use them to create our own products.
Let me elaborate a bit more. In the future, there will be huge demand for technologists proficient in artificial intelligence, bitcoin, data science, and similar new technologies. We need to quickly incorporate these subjects into the curricula of our colleges and universities to produce such technologists. At the very least, there are many open-source projects in these areas where we can participate, work alongside others, sharpen our technological skills, and bring new opportunities into the country. I admit that some have already taken initiatives in these areas at a small scale. But we need to take broader actions. To stay ahead globally, we must develop our skilled human resources.
Amazon is developing several platforms on these technologies in their cloud. You can also learn from there:
- https://aws.amazon.com/events/aws-innovate/machine-learning/
- https://aws.amazon.com/tensorflow
- https://aws.amazon.com/machine-learning/ai-services/
You can learn from Microsoft’s platforms:
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/overview/ai-platform/
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai?activetab=pivot1%3aprimaryr5
- https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/ai-platform/ct-p/AIPlatform
- https://aischool.microsoft.com/en-us/home
- https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/machine-learning/
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/machine-learning/
You can learn from Google’s platforms:
- https://cloud.google.com/solutions/ai/
- https://cloud.google.com/ai-platform/
You can learn the open-source machine learning platform TensorFlow: https://www.tensorflow.org/
There are also several open-source projects below where you can participate:
- https://github.com/corda/corda
- https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot
- Hyperledger: open source-based enterprise blockchain: https://www.hyperledger.org/projects/fabric
- https://www.goquorum.com/
- https://www.openchain.org/
In addition, the following organizations’ platforms are doing quite well. You can learn from them as well.
- https://kaleido.io/product/
- https://www.hyperledger.org/
If you know of any additional references on new technologies, please share in the comments.
Dr. Mashiur Rahman
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Very good article tnx