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Stories of the Month - August 2007
Techies of the future, top CIO skills, William Gibson and 'chip and bin'…

By Tim Ferguson

Published: Friday 31 August 2007

The skills crisis is still giving IT bosses sleepless nights judging by the results of silicon.com's ninth skills survey in August.

The survey reveals employers are finding it harder than ever to recruit for IT positions with 45 per cent of respondents saying they have IT roles they can't fill.

But it's not only the tech skills falling short. CBI research found that while school leavers are pretty tech savvy, many employers believe they are leaving school without the basic numerical and literacy skills necessary for the workplace.

The tech savviness of school leavers may have a lot to do with Facebook but nearly half (43 per cent) of workers said the social networking phenomenon has been banned in their workplace.

Stories of the month - August 2007

Click on the links below to read the stories everyone is talking about...

Q&A: William Gibson, science fiction novelist

Apple targets Twitter generation

Peter Cochrane's Blog: Know-nothing managers

Skills Survey 2007: Staffing crisis deepens

Got 8Mbps broadband? Are you sure?

Police arrest man over 'wi-fi theft'

Five skills you need to be CIO

Chip and bin wheels closer

Tech-savvy school-leavers 'lack basic skills'

Facebook banned by half of employers

silicon.com's tech guru, Peter Cochrane, also weighed into the tech skills debate. He expressed concerns about the lack of IT knowledge among the very people signing off tech budgets, suggesting the rise of the "professional manager" is to blame.

Our article on the five skills you need to be CIO should provide some good pointers though. Using the collective wisdom of the CIO Jury, silicon.com community editor Andy McCue highlights the essential ingredients needed to be the complete CIO.

When silicon.com's news editor Steve Ranger caught up with sci-fi writer William Gibson, readers got a unique insight into the place of technology in today's world.

The author of cyberpunk classic Neuromancer and person who first coined the phrase cyberspace has predicted much of today's major tech development and he stated technology is now the main driver of change around the world.

A few years ago the arrest of a man under the suspicion of 'wi-fi theft' would have seemed like science fiction but this is exactly what happened in Chiswick in west London last month.

silicon.com readers also got a glimpse into the future as waste charging options were explored with proposals for micro-chip equipped wheelie bins being rolled out. Unsurprisingly, our 'chip and bin' story generated a lot of reader comment.

Apple's futuristic new iMacs were also unveiled this month with versions available in glass or aluminium. See more here.