The Information Society and Information Economy – New Work, New Workers, New Organisations?

The Information Society and Information Economy – New Work, New Workers, New Organisations?

MITTS Ltd has in the past years taken to heart the emerging new rules of the Information Society and Economy, and has positioned itself to champion this in the local context. ‘The Information Economy - New Work, New Workers, New Organisations’ was the theme of the second bi-annual national conference organised by MITTS Ltd which was held in November 2002.

The conference which attracted more than 200 delegates from the Public Service, the ICT industry and the business society, stemmed from three cardinal areas of the Information Economy being, the new way business is being conducted (new work), the new skills that are required (new workers) to meet current technology demands, and the new way work is being organised (new organisations). The conference included discussions related to empowering traders through ICTs, reshaping business through ICTs, the emerging role of Government in the Information Age and the implications for Malta’s workforce.

This national conference instigated debate on the subject at all levels, including the topical issue of the Digital Divide. Should new work, new workers and new organisations induce new rules, thus widening the digital divide instead of narrowing it? In its National role, MITTS Ltd is a strong supporter of narrowing this divide and has actively initiated initiatives in this regard. Apart from providing continuous support to the 2001 initiated social partnerships with the KNPD, FITA and the Industry to Academia Partnership, in 2002 MITTS Ltd included in its Communications Strategy a series of initiatives that attempt to tackle such an issue. An indication of such initiatives included the participation in eMalta Commission’s themed seminar on bridging the digital divide, a series of articles in MITTS Ltd e-zine (ITCatalyst) with the inclusion of ICT educational articles and the continued support to the STC which offer basic ICT certification in collaboration with ETC.

The theme of ‘New Work, New Workers and New Organisations’, also gave MITTS Ltd the drive to organise Public Service in-house ICT themed seminars on Data Protection in the Public Service and Information Security, whilst the first of a series of Public ICT discussion forums titled ‘Open Source Software: Fad or True Reality’ was held at the Chamber of Commerce in December 2002.

No one would imagine that Kenneth being so young has already 12 years experience in ICT. Kenneth’s first work exposure was in 1991, when Kenneth joined the Company as a Technical Institute Trainee. Following completion of his traineeship, Kenneth joined the Company as a front liner on PC support. His 12 years stint helped to provide him with the necessary qualities which an IT professional requires – exposure to all facets of the IT world. His career progressed when he formed part of the main network group, which saw the actual birth of the MAGNET.

Kenneth proudly affirms that “…the years I spent with MITTS Ltd have engraved in my character solid principles of pride in all I do”, where the culture of proaction rather than reaction conditioned his thinking in a positive way. The Company, which saw great potential in Kenneth, assisted him to obtain professional certification in Microsoft engineering, CISCO and ITIL Service Management.

“MITTS Ltd gave me the opportunity to become what I am today and is still investing in my future through further training and education to further my career”.

Kenneth’s next task is the configuration of the Network Management System which will allow MITTS Ltd to take further pro-active measures in the management of MAGNET and eventually MAGNET II.

Kenneth Attard Technical Services Officer

Miriam Azzopardi Performance Monitoring Analyst

Miriam just successfully completed a course in BSc Business and Computing. Her fi rst interest in IT developed during her fi nal year in the Secondary school, where Miriam realised that she could build a career in IT.

Miriam learnt about MITTS Ltd during her years at University, where as Miriam says, “…at University MITTS Ltd has a reputation that it invests in its people for them to develop”. With the fi rst opportunity to join MITTS Ltd, she applied and was selected as a Performance Monitoring Analyst in December 2002. In Miriam’s own words “I feel that I work within a very welcoming team, who as a new recruit helped me integrate well within MITTS Ltd”.

Miriam feels that MITTS Ltd offers its employees a lot of opportunities to progress in their careers and she sees herself building a career in IT at MITTS Ltd.