There are at least as many definitions for “Information Technology” as there are practitioners of the profession. It would be foolish to try to define all of IT, so instead this is just a few words about my personal experience of Information Technology.

For as long as I can remember I have found myself at that place where people meet technology. From when I was a boy helping my grandfather to replace his “Hi Fi” with a component stereo system, to designing a multilingual electronic medical record for clinics in developing countries, the process has been much the same. Helping people see the relevant technologies for what they are and how those technologies can help, assisting them in selecting the appropriate components, integrating (or building, when necessary) those bits and pieces into something useful and usable, all the while maintaining a dialog that informs both the people I’m helping and the solution I’m designing.

It sounds pretty clinical when stated that way, but it’s really not. The people invariably are, or become, my friends. And the technologies? Well, think of them as both tools and toys. Now who doesn’t like to play with their friends and bring them new toys? That is, after all, how we humans learn almost everything that’s important to us. Oh, to be sure, real problems get solved and real work gets done, but that's just how adults play in the “real” world.