Let’s talk about Pussy Riot.
One of its three members has an IT background. From an AP profile:
Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, studied computers at Moscow Energy University and soon got a good job at a top research center. She was promptly hired to a job in a top secret department where she was designing software programs for Russia’s top nuclear submarine Nerpa, her father Stanislav said.
This is a young woman with access to a potentially comfortable and secure life, but yet made a decision to put her future at risk by taking a stand against leadership abuses in Russia.
There is boldness, determination and steel in these women and it is admirable. But it was not surprising at all to read that one had an IT background.
IT professionals, people with training in technology, are going to become change agents in the U.S. and globally. You will see more and more people with tech backgrounds emerge as political candidates and protest leaders, and they will bring new ideas for solving problems that are beyond the grasp and capabilities of today’s leadership.
First, let’s establish that people with technology backgrounds are already capable of bringing about great change. There is a long line of technologists from Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg who have completely reshaped global businesses.
Second, there is the demographic factor at work. Enrollments in computer science are rising, once again, and this time there won’t be another dot-com setback. Technology is infusing itself in our society and enrollments will only increase.
Third, and most important, computer science, technology training generally, is bringing about new ways of thinking. Technology combines physician-like problem solving skills with the ability to make intuitive, imaginative and artful leaps. This is a capability that has proven itself in tech, but not in Washington.
People in tech have great gifts but, for now, they aren’t playing much of a role in the political process. They are building companies and networks and careers.
Government, Congress, remains dominated by lawyers and MBAs and they’re out of ideas. There’s no alternative energy policy, there’s no discussion on climate change, and there’s an anti-science element just waiting for its next opportunity.
The people who will bring about change won’t be someone who creates a successful start-up, cashes out, and then runs for office on political dogma. But it might be somebody like a Ms. Samutsevich who is helping to challenge her country to think about its direction.