Exhibitions are events at which one vendor or several vendors exhibit their latest information technology offerings. Some shows, such as COMDEX (Computer Dealer Expo), involve a wide variety of vendors, and are given at different locations throughout the country. a few times a year. Other types of shows involve specialty areas. For instance, a show covering presentation graphics would attract exhibitors featuring such products as commercial art systems, desktop publishing packages, laser printers, plotters, and film recorders. Exhibitions such as Object World focus on object-oriented products and applications such as OOP projects, object-oriented development tools, object databases and database management systems, and object request broker (ORB) technologies for object applications in client/server networks. Sending managers and network professionals to such trade shows benefits organizations that want to stay on top of technological developments.
Reading is perhaps one of the easiest ways to learn about new technologies. It is also one of the least expensive. Many organizations have extensive in-house IT libraries, but even if they don't, it is a wise practice to encourage network professionals to keep up with the literature in this highly dynamic area. Many options are available to those who spend a lot of their time reading, including:
Books: Specialized computer book stores or colleges and universities are great places to find sources
Periodicals and Journals: The freshest sources of information about technology are the daily, weekly, monthly, and quarteriy periodicals and journals. These can be obtained from the Internet, or paid subscriptions to the organizations that run them.
Topical Reports: In a rapidly changing area such as computer networking, professionals often need up-to-date information on vendor products. reports may cover a variety of networking hardware or software products, a group of related products, a technology tutorial, networking management practices, and so forth. Compared to other sources of information on networking and network products, these publications are relatively expensive.
Electronic Media: This is by all means the most useful of all resources. Using both Internet and Telnet resources, networking professionals can gain up-to-date information when and where they want to receive it.
Vendor Literature: One of the most straightforward ways to learn about a product Is to look at the vendor's literature. This literature is, of course, almost always designed to put the vendor's product in the most favorable light, but it is frequently both free and useful.
Professional Associations: Vendor consortiums and networking product user groups provide network personnel with additional ways to stay current. Organizations should encourage their networking professionals to participate in these organizations and conferences. Such participation pron1otes the social networking of professionals and can help them and their organizations stay abreast of important developments in computer networking.
Regardless of the method you choose to keep current with the rapidly changing technologies, it is essential for all networking professionals to do so if they want to stay marketable and maintain a solid salary.