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Leader: Do UK IT staff have the Olympic spirit?
Or would we make the Athens organisers look hyper-efficient in comparison?

By silicon.com

Published: Thursday 20 May 2004

This week has seen London make it onto the shortlist of potential host cities for the Olympics in 2012. We have also just passed a crunch date in the construction of key architecture for the Athens Games that will take place this August. Thankfully, IT doesn't seem to be an area that is in much danger of coming up short.

But as silicon.com visited Athens this week to see what the event organisers are up to, one thing struck us - Olympics IT this year, and most years, will in no small way count on an army of tech-savvy volunteers. How's that possible?

It seems 2,000 IT volunteers - admittedly mainly at a low level - will help make the Games happen because they buy in to that great Olympic ideal of volunteerism. It's a tradition that is of course far from limited to technology.

So fast forward eight years. Can we imagine a London Games where 2,000 Britons and suitable visitors volunteer? OK, we must say at this stage that the UK has a fine tradition of volunteering and a sense of public duty, as well as participation in most sports.

So let's rephrase that. Does the current - and probable future - IT skills situation in the UK allow a few thousand staff to be spared for up to a couple of months?

If current demand is anything to go by, it may prove a stretch. And consider that these aren't staff who get to stand in an aisle to watch an opening ceremony or work on systems for timing a close middle distance final. They are largely behind the scenes.

However, let's not forget that while there are widespread problems across the board in finding people with the right IT skills, such positions aren't going to be massively complex. A developed economy and populous region such as the south east of England should be able to come up with goods.

So let's hope a decision about London - an issue for the International Olympic Committee next year, rather than eight years from now - doesn't fall down on matters of information and communications technology. Our bet is that a London Games would be more innovative and better run in an IT sense than anything that has come before it.