Global Software Enterpreneurship

With the globalization of markets and the creation of software to address these markets, educators face new curriculum challenges. They must expose students not only to core science skills, but also to a number of other skills that will enable them to innovate effectively on a global stage. This position paper discusses the evolution of business models and software requirements over the last decade, and the associated changes to CS curricula that will enable today’s CS students to become tomorrow’s innovators. 1. The changing nature of software innovation In many ways, the true “killer app” of the Internet has been the globalization of knowledge-based industries such as software development. Software globalization began as an asymmetric process with the outsourcing of software development in the ‘90’s. Over time, this has broadened both in scope and direction – evolving from a strict division of labor (product conception in the west and execution on a global scale) to collaborative conception and design without regard to national borders [1]. We are even beginning to see some notable inversions, where products such as Motorola’s A760 [5] are conceived in emerging markets and refined or repurposed for the Americas and EMEA. The nature of software innovation is also evolving, as software moves from being an isolated island of value – such as Microsoft Word or Exchange to being one of many components of a product’s value proposition for example, the effortless media synchronization software that is part of the iPod value proposition is one component of an iconic product that is just as much about industrial design and an easy interface to purchase music. Yet another trend is being driven by a greater balance of consumer and enterprise roles in driving software innovation. Where the 80’s and 90’s were about enterprise innovation trickling down to consumer products (think e-mail and Microsoft Word), we’re increasingly seeing consumer-first technologies such as the ipod creating “halo” effects in the enterprise [2]. Some companies, for example, are issuing their employees portable media players which can be used to store corporate data and even keep workers informed via podcasts. This trend is also leading to more advanced “pro-sumer” products that further blur the lines between consumer and professional life. Once again, the Moto Q provides a notable example, giving users a single mobile device for all their communication, connectivity and entertainment needs—at work, at home or on the road.[3]. Along with these trends in knowledge globalization, product integration and new usage models, the software industry is experiencing tremendous growth around the concept of “openness,” with new innovations being driven through open development communities, open platforms such as AJAX and Web services, and products based on open source code and pluggable services. A side effect of globalization is that a compelling new product can build global mindshare very quickly. Time is of the essence as developers plan rapid, intense product cycles to keep their edge as competitive products rapidly enter the marketplace. Corporations must mobilize globally and respond quickly, or risk becoming irrelevant when competitors beat them to the next level of product functionality. Taken together, these changes in the software market redefine the expectations for new engineers entering the software workforce. To prepare students to meet these new expectations, educators must redesign the computer science curriculum to proactively address the foreseeable challenges that new generations of software engineers will face. 2. Software Workforce Needs of the Future The changing nature of software innovation drives the need for new skills within the software business. The globalization of consumer markets is driving the need for culturally informed innovation that is geographically and demographically aligned with customer expectations. This may mean, for example, that a US entrepreneur creating a gaming application for Asian markets needs to understand the social norms of Korean teenagers, as well as the ways in which entertainment devices are used in Korea’s commuter culture. The increased innovation in Proceedings of the 30th Annual International Computer Software and Applications Conference (COMPSAC'06) 0-7695-2655-1/06 $20.00 © 2006 software embedded in information appliances requires that software developers understand how their software affects the overall product concept, and how particular software architectures can create leverage across products