The Computing Profession in the Era of Virtual Organising

Abstract

This paper discusses the professionalisation process of the computing profession which has entered a new phase triggered by the emerging concept of virtual organising. We start by describing the professionalisation process as a competition for tasks, this competition is illustrated by the history of the computing profession in the Netherlands. We distinguish three opportunities for the computing profession resulting from the emerging concept of virtual organising: first, the growing complexity of information and communication technology (JCT) combined with increasing dependency on this technology; second, the merging of knowledge of JCT with knowledge of a specific domain; and third, the intertwining of technological and organisational choices on the strategic level.