Being Mark Cohen

It’s really interesting to see what’s going on in the IT industry in South Africa (Politics aside). There is going to be massive opportunity for challengers to take the leading place in just about every sector for a few reasons. Firstly, internet penetration is still only a small percentage of the population. Secondly, broadband penetration is negligible as it is still prohibitively expensive. And thirdly, as a result of the first two, the leading web sites are still relatively unknown.

Sit down at a dinner table in Sydney and ask people what the leading Job board is. Without hesitation you will be told Seek.com.au. Try the same thing in South Africa, and some of the people will not know of any job boards off the top of their heads, and others will discuss it a bit before agreeing on one. Basic internet penetration in the corporates apparently matches anywhere else in the world, it’s the home market where the opportunities lie. Retail outlets, consumables, clothing, books, news, services. It’s all waiting to be tapped.

Another interesting observation is that all my mates here who were java (and some smalltalk) professionals know and understand .net. One has even expanded his java shop to include a .net team.

Big opportunities ahead.

We’re waiting for the terminal to open, at the airport. The kids are playing on some rides and Deb is looking for something to do. It’s 5:30 and we’ve been up for an hour and a half already. This is going to be a loooong day.

It’s been an interesting September. I had my birthday last week, amid a fair bit of stress.By the end of it all I’d accepted a new job with the same company I used to work for before my current employers. For a breather between jobs, we’re off to Mauritius and South Africa for a few weeks. Should be good – looking forward to catching up with eveyone back there. When we get back I reckon it’s going to be a lot of fun getting back to work. I’ve learned some good stuff in the last few years, and I’m keen to see what I can do with the experience. So, no meaty comments for the blog – and probably nothing of significance to come until mid-Oct