It's The Jobs, Stupid: The Priorities Of Outsourcing

John Kerry's or President Bush's positions on broadband, cybersecurity, or Internet taxation probably aren't the first issues that come to mind when weighing the merits of the presidential candidates. There are more pressing ones--the war on terror and the economy--and the candidates themselves spend little time expounding on these technology points.

But certain IT-related issues have resonance. So it's perhaps no wonder that one widely debated issue--offshore outsourcing--rose to the top of the list of in terms of importance among respondents to InformationWeek's informal online poll. This poll was far from scientific: Participants weren't screened and the results weren't scrubbed. And there are a lot of people very passionate about the jobs issue, especially among IT workers.

But offshoring is an issue with many sides. Some poll respondents ticked off offshoring because they want U.S. companies to be able to send work wherever it makes the most economic sense. "I do not want to see protectionist policies regarding offshoring or job protection/creation," writes one respondent. "But I DO want to see policies that provide retraining to laid-off workers and foster tech innovation and competitiveness in the U.S." That syncs with the No. 2 issue on the list, retraining, and No. 6, H-1B visas.

Surprising, perhaps, is that universal access to broadband--an issue both candidates have spent some time on--scored so low: No. 9 on the list, with 18% of respondents.

What's on your list of IT-related election issues? Let us know and, if you want to participate in our latest poll (a more scientific one this time), go to informationweek.com/998/poll.htm.

Stacey Peterson
Senior Managing Editor
[email protected]

Wonks In Hiding

How familiar are you with each party's business-technology platform?

Perhaps it's no surprise that the majority of the 541 participants in the InformationWeek.com poll appear to be well versed in both parties' business-technology platforms. Besides being politically savvy, most business-technology managers need to keep a close eye on Washington policy and how it might affect IT budgets and planning.