SPC 2012 - What You Can't Outsource

During the conference happy hour on Wednesday, someone asked the crowd what couldn't be outsourced in IT.  (This was part of an ice breaker where they gave an open mic to anyone who wanted to talk about anything, like Speakers Corner in Hyde Park in London).

Coincidentally, upon seeing an opportunity to be a ham, I wrote the following.  It happened to also answer the question of what things in an IT program can't be outsourced.

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What You Can't Outsource

Our school buses
    look like city buses.

Children ride those buses
    from dorms
    from slums.

They ride
    one hand on the strap
    or on the bar.

Their minds
    on the books
    in the bag
    attached to the strap
    on their back.

Their minds
    on the face
    of the person
    they met last night
    in the bar.

Their other hand
    holding their phone
    sending a text
    updating their timeline
    checking their grades.

Their grades
    the key
    their future
    hanging in the balance.

The bus opens to
    the library
    the stacks
    the computers.

They research
    they study
    they dream
    they snooze
    they wake with a start.

Their phone reminds them:
    Time for class.
    Time for office hours.
    Time for lunch.

They smile,
    unaware
    that we are there
    we run
    the network,
    the Blackboard,
    the kiosks,
    the instruments

Instruments that sing
    with music and data
    flowing and caressing them
    with an endless tune.

We keep their classrooms
    warm
    wired
    wireless
    lit
    projected
    safe

We keep their Internet

    warm

    wired

    wireless

    lit

    projected

    safe

They may never know

    to thank us

    to ask us

    to help them again

But we watch

    we fix

    we plan

    we dream too.

Our dreams are their dreams.

They just don't know it.

And we

    should never forget it.