Through her advice and her own career story, Maria Klawe, president of STEM-centric Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, Calif., offers many insights about how women can secure the experience, knowledge and support for successful IT or STEM-related careers.

Take hard-core computer science courses—lots of them—and don’t be intimidated.

Continuously taking computer science courses is a matter of necessity, given technology’s lightning speed rate of change, Klawe contends.

“If some students appear to know more than you do, ignore it,” says Klawe, a computer scientist, mathematician, and a Microsoft board member. “Research tells us there are lots of students who start college with zero experience in computer science and do really well.”

To those who are not enrolled in college, or who can’t or don’t want to be, Klawe suggests trying one of the free online computer science courses offered by MIT and Stanford.  “See how you like it,” she says. “It’s a fantastic way to have access to the same knowledge that they are teaching at MIT and Stanford.”

Klawe encourages honing software programming skills to capitalize on the current shortage of software developers. “The most important thing is to have a reasonable knowledge of software development, testing and quality assurances.”

Find a peer group. If you can’t find one, make one.

“Male or female, it’s important that you make sure you have people who are going to be encouraging and supportive,” says Klawe.  If you are in college, talk to a female faculty member or a female graduate student about what’s available or about starting a peer group. Talk to your department chair about getting funding to go to the annual Grace Hopper Celebration of Women Conference, a program of the Anita Borg Institute of Women & Technology, she suggested.

Actively and Strategically Seek Advice and Guidance

Throughout her career, Klawe has periodically sought advice of people who were more senior than she. For example: She once buttonholed three leading mathematicians at a conference about whether earning a PhD in computer science was a crazy idea or a great opportunity for a person like her who already had a doctorate in mathematics. (All three were very encouraging.) “I’ve only had two people not be friendly and helpful,” she says. “The vast majority of people you ask to provide advice are actually very willing to do so.”

Cultivate Your Own Professional Development

Early in her career, Klawe joined IBM Research, where her husband Nicholas Pippenger also worked. The stint at IBM turned out to be a professional boon. “In those days, they had phenomenally good professional development for leadership,” Klawe says. At IBM, Klawe learned about employee supervision, goal-setting, performance evaluations, compensation systems and leadership skills, hard and soft. “I also gained lots of insight about who I was as a person and what were going to be my strengths and weaknesses,” she says. Klawe continues to participate in training workshops, and has recently discovered the benefits of executive coaches. “They’re great!”

Say Yes to Leadership Opportunities

One of the mathematicians Klawe buttonholed decades ago was Ronald Graham of the University of California, San Diego. It was Graham who later suggested to Klawe that she might be a good trustee for the American Mathematical Society. “It was 1991, the year I turned 40, so I was relatively young,” recalls Klawe. She indeed became an AMS trustee, a role she calls a great learning experience. “Once you start taking on these leadership positions, it opens up the possibility for other leadership positions,” she says.

Network, Network, Network

According to Klawe, the biggest challenge for women in IT is that “there are just very few women around.” But, she says, “The best way to cope with that is simply networking.” Get to know women throughout your company, in other companies, and even other industries, she says, “so if you are feeling isolated, you can talk to somebody about it and feel less isolated.”

In general, Klawe is rabid proponent of all types of networking, with men or women, in a variety of different professional environments. “It’s amazing how much just getting to know different people in different places can help you, not just in terms of people who can give advice at critical moments, but also people who can connect you to other people who are going to be helpful.”

Last week, the provisions of the Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 which govern websites’ use of cookies, came into force in the UK. However, very few websites are currently compliant.  Simon Halberstam, head of IT law at Kingsley Napley LLP, offers advice to IT companies on how to handle the new regulations.

The new law requires websites to gain explicit user consent to receive a cookie prior to deployment. A website hosted outside the UK will be likely to fall within the ambit of the regulations if:

• The organization which owns the website is based in the UK; or
• The website itself is targeted at the European market; or
• Products and services are provided from the website to customers predominantly based in Europe.

A fine of up to £500,000 could be imposed for the most serious breaches. Organizations dropping cookies which focus on gathering user’s personal information will be the main focus for enforcement.

What Should You Do Now?

Web managers in the UK should be:

1. Ascertaining what type of cookies are used by their websites and how they are downloaded onto users’ machines (effectively a “cookie audit”),
2. Gauging the likelihood of existing cookies’ fitting within the “provision of service” exemption,
3. Deciding on which method(s) of obtaining consent to cookies are best for their website, given the results of the cookie audit, and
4. Recording the cookie audit and implementation methods in an easily digestible form, lest the information commissioner investigate the site.

Suggested Methods of Implementation

Below are a few options which have been suggested to procure user consent before cookies are downloaded. Please note that consent only needs to be provided by a user the first time each type of cookie (used for the same purpose) is downloaded onto its machine:

• Pop-ups each time a new type of cookie is to be downloaded onto a user’s machine,
• Posting a privacy policy detailing the site’s use of cookies — the terms of which a user must positively accept upon visiting the site for the first time (e.g. via a tick box), and
• Settings and feature-led consent. If cookies are downloaded when a user does something, e.g. watches a video or personalizes the site, obtaining the user’s consent prior to feature access.

What Next?

The information commissioner has suggested that, in the near future, consent could be validly provided through users’ web browsers. The Information Commissioner’s guidance sets out a future scenario whereby a user accesses a website via a sufficiently sophisticated web browser set up to reject certain cookies and accept others, allowing a web manager to assume that the user has provided its consent accordingly. However, it acknowledges that many web browsers are not sufficiently sophisticated for this method to be currently viable.

The Article 29 Working Party (a group of data protection regulators from EU member states) has given a non-binding (albeit very persuasive) opinion on consent via web browsers. The Working Party has suggested that reliance on users navigating websites via sophisticated web browsers is not, in itself, a substitute for procuring their positive consent to the download of cookies. Instead, the Working Party has suggested that web browsers need to be supplied to consumers with a default setting of rejecting cookies. In order for consent to be validly given via these browsers, users would have to be provided with comprehensive information about cookies before actively changing their browser settings to allow them.

Law vs. Technology

The fundamental problem lies in a disconnect between the law and technology. In most cases the law runs to try to keep up with technology (e.g. super-injunctions failing to keep pace with the rise of social media). However, in this case the law is way ahead, making unrealistic demands of the current technological landscape and necessitating that developers build innovative solutions to meet the new legal requirements.

This is general guidance from Simon Halberstam, head of IT law at Kingsley Napley LLP and should not be applied to any specific situation without consulting Simon Halberstam or another suitably qualified IT lawyer as to the appropriate way to proceed.  For further information, contact Simon Halberstam at shalberstam@kingsleynapley.co.uk or tel: +44 020 7814 1258.

A look at the week of May 29 in public advocacy for the IT channel:  With the celebration of Memorial Day weekend, The Washington Post renewed its focus on how to educate and train our nation’s returning veterans.  White House Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel testified before a congressional committee, defending the federal government’s efforts to take advantage of the latest technology. On the small business front, Small Business Administration Head Karen Mills sat down with the Associated Press to discuss the agency’s decision to expand its focus beyond providing loans to include counseling and mentoring services to small business owners.

Program recruits older vets for employment training – A new program offered jointly by the Department of Veteran Affairs and the Labor Department entitled the Veteran Retraining Assistance Program is aiming to retrain up to 99,000 veterans for high-demand jobs, says The Washington Post. The program is part of the VOW to Hire Heroes Act, which was passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama in August 2011.

White House CIO makes case for technology investment – White House Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel defended the federal government’s role in acquiring the latest, innovative technology before the Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, & International Security. The hearing was set up to examine better ways for the government to use innovative technology while keeping costs down, says the National Journal.

SBA head looks beyond loans to help small business – Small Business Administration Head Karen Mills sat down for a Q&A with Joyce Rosenberg of the Associated Press  to talk about what the SBA is doing to help small business owners through various loans, counseling and mentoring programs.

Ask any solution provider to describe the amount of information collateral their vendor partners send their way and quite often the first response you’ll get is a groan.

Think about it: Daily (or more) email newsletter blasts, social media feeds, frequent partner portal updates with strategic information on product roadmaps, pricing, sales promotions and technical updates. That’s not to mention the collateral on discounts, rebates and MDF that changes regularly, along with the constant flow of information on mandated training or certifications. It’s lots to track, exacerbated by the fact that the information is coming from not one, but a stable of different vendors in the average channel company’s portfolio.

Is it information overload? It depends. While the fire hose nature of vendor communications is a perennial channel complaint, recent industry data finds that the majority of solution providers – groans to the contrary – say they will accept high volumes of information if it is relevant to and helps further their business. That said, a fifth of channel firms believe that vendor communications – relevant or not – is too much and would like to see less of it coming over the transom.

These are two of the key findings from CompTIA’s 2^nd Annual State of IT Channel Programs study, to be released this week, which does a deep dive into the communications trends, patterns and obstacles between channel firms and IT vendors today.

Channel Attitudes about Communications Volume

20% – Excessive, prefer less of it

65% – Volume high, but as long as relevant to my business it’s useful

12% – Too little. Would like to receive more

3% – No need for it at all

The volume game poses a difficult dance for vendors, in reality. As the industry becomes more complex, business models change, and products and services expand, the need for greater levels of communications with channel partners escalates. And because channel firms tend to be more reactive than proactive with respect to new information, vendors – despite complaints about volume – often need to blast large amounts of communications in order to hit their targets.

The question is, what information is considered relevant to the channel and what is more driven by the needs of the vendors? Material that helps partners sell, get up to speed on new products and services, promotions and other resources is most useful from the channel perspective. Asked which communications medium they believe was most crucial to successful partnership with their vendors in the last year, more than half (53 percent) singled out 24/7 technical phone support, which speaks directly to their ability to understand and effectively sell products.

And yet that’s not the majority of communications type the channel is receiving. Consider the following: Four in 10 respondents said that 75 percent and above of the vendor communications they received in last year pertained strictly to channel marketing and recruitment activities. A whopping 86 percent said that at least half of their communications this past year took that form. For some channel firms, so much pure marketing could be a turn off.

IT certifications can help a veteran land a job, but veterans need to understand how much work earning the credentials will require and the salary the resulting IT job will command, says Army veteran Ryan McCauley.

Since October 2011, McCauley has used funding from the Post 9/11 GI Bill to earn CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+ and other industry certifications at New Horizons Learning Center in Durham, N.C., while working a full-time job.

It’s been hard, attending 12 hours of class at New Horizons while working 40 hours each week. “I sleep when I can; I sometimes skip meals,” he says. But he believes the coursework, the certifications, and career services he received at New Horizons helped him land his current job a technical support specialist at Carolina IT, a managed IT services firm in Raleigh, N.C., in February 2012. Over the next five years, he plans to work his way through Cisco’s routing and switching certifications, from CCNA to the expert level CCIE.

He’s heard some veterans erroneously hope for a $70,000-a-year job after earning CompTIA A+. “In this job market, employers will want to get the best bang for buck,” he cautions, noting that with eight years IT experience (in the Army and the private sector), he currently earns about $45,000 working as a technical support specialist at a managed IT services firm in Raleigh, N.C.

Starting IT job salaries can vary by region, industry sector (public vs. private), size of firm, benefits, the position’s management requirements and the employee’s education level. The median salary of computer support specialists, an occupation many CompTIA A+ holders pursue, was $47,660 in May 2011, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Be sure you have set your expectations realistically,” McCauley advises fellow vets working towards a career in IT. “Devote yourself to the dream that you have. Put your nose to the grindstone and study like you mean it.”
CompTIA created the Troops to Tech Careers program to provide opportunities and resources for veterans interested in the rapidly growing IT field. For more information, visit www.troopstotechcareers.org.

According to a CompTIA research report released a couple months ago, business executives have become increasingly concerned with protecting access to their companies’ information systems and the data they contain. Whether driven by new rules and regulations, or well-publicized news of critical breaches and their repercussions on organizations and their clients, a majority of decision-makers are taking note of the value of an effective IT security program.

And the awareness level is escalating rapidly. In their 9th Annual Information Security study, CompTIA researchers found that approximately 70 percent of organizations currently rate security as a high/upper level priority, an increase of more than 20 percent from the 49 percent reported in 2010.

What’s a concern for business executives can be a significant opportunity for skilled IT security professionals. Cybersecurity and data storage topping the CompTIA report list of “high priorities” at 71 percent and 61 percent respectively, with disaster recovery, network infrastructure, cloud computing, mobility and virtualization all above 50 percent. All of these areas of concern are strengths for the solution provider community, especially for those with the ability to address the protection needs of a number of different industries.

Potential security business opportunities don’t mean a thing if you’re not prepared to deliver the appropriate solutions for prospective and current clients—and support their long-term organizational needs. A portfolio with antivirus and backup programs is a great start, but an effective IT security professional has to offer a comprehensive collection of services that help businesses address a multitude of issues. Many of today’s organizations are forced to comply with a variety of federal, state, or local government regulations, as well as industry standards and best practices related to information security.

The Peer Solution

So how can solution providers get the training, knowledge and tools they need to build a practice to address the multifaceted protection needs of their clients? A little more than two years ago, a number of IT channel business owners set out to create a peer group that would develop these resources and the result of their efforts, the CompTIA IT Security Community  has been a flurry of activity ever since.

Focused on the challenges and opportunities in the IT security field, the group is aggressively developing a variety of industry best practices, education programs, standards, and member-driven initiatives. One of the major community projects resulted in the CompTIA Security Trustmark, an IT business credential which identifies solution providers who have met a prescribed list of industry standards. The application and validation processes also helps companies recognize potential regulatory compliance gaps and address problem areas in their policies, processes and plans.

In addition to the well received business credential, the IT Security Community has been extremely busy, creating a number of channel-beneficial resources and programs, including:

• The IT Security Roadmap: offers an overview of current and emerging trends, and serves as a planning and validation tool for solution providers offering data and system protection services.
• Commentary on CompTIA IT Security research: community members offer insight on the latest trends and receive updates on upcoming surveys and reports
• A Security Code of Ethics for CompTIA members: the group was instrumental in designing  association-wide standards
• HIPAA compliance materials: this information will be used to update the IT Security Trustmark

Helping the industry is a worthy goal, but most IT Security Community members receive personal and professional benefits from their involvement.  “Anyone who deals with IT security, vendors and solution providers, can participate and learn, share ideas, and focus on a subject that affects everyone,” says Mike Semel, VP and CSO for Business Continuity Technologies, and chair of the CompTIA IT Security Community. “There’s a huge business opportunity and, whether you’re interested in learning how to market security or if you’re a renowned expert, the Community has something for you.”

This group won’t rest on the success of its previous accomplishments. At the upcoming CompTIA Breakaway conference, Semel will convene the next live meeting of IT Security Community, where members will discuss a number of current and prospective initiatives intended to help advance the industry. Ongoing projects include:

• Federal and state legislation (affecting a number of regulatory compliance issues),
• Partnering with other CompTIA Communities that share security concerns and
• Organizing more vendor and solution provider discussions to identify business opportunities.

If you have an interest in IT security, whether it’s to develop a new practice or just to learn more about the opportunities, the group is always accepting new members. Send a message of interest to communities@comptia.org or register to attend the session at Breakaway 2012.

Brian Sherman is founder of Tech Success Communications, specializing in editorial content and consulting for the IT channel. His previous roles include chief editor at Business Solutions magazine and industry alliances director with Autotask. Contact Brian at Bsherman@techsuccesscommunications.com.

When her post-retirement career didn’t work out as planned, Navy veteran Mellisa Stroman trained with New Horizons of Southern California to earn IT certifications and get the IT instructor job she really wanted.

Stroman worked in IT nearly her entire Navy career while raising two children with her husband, also a Navy sailor. “I just always wanted to go into the computer field,” she says.

From 1985 through 2005, Stroman’s Navy rotations included maintaining an IBM mainframe system in New Orleans, working at an IT help desk in Japan, teaching IT to sailors at a San Diego training center, and managing the network and crew computers on the USS Bonhomme Richard when the ship deployed to Iraq after 9/11. She retired from the Navy as an Information Systems Technology Chief Petty Officer in 2005.

Mellisa Stroman

After retiring, Stroman earned her real estate license, thinking it would be a good career option while her children were still in grade school in Murrieta, Calif. By 2009, however, real estate in southern California was a bust, and Stroman re-entered the IT workforce via a help desk job, working for defense contractor SAIC on a swing shift.

She enjoyed helping fleet ships all over the world resolve problems with IT networks and equipment. “When you help someone on a ship over in Bahrain, their appreciation comes through,” Stroman says. “It’s rewarding, but I wanted to take it to the next level and teach again.”

A teaching job would give Stroman a day-time work schedule in addition to face-to-face interaction with students, but she was concerned about the four-year gap in her hands-on IT work experience. From 2005 to 2009, shipboard IT systems had changed a lot; for example, administrators were managing servers through virtualization.

To fill in knowledge gaps, Stroman began training for IT certifications at New Horizons Southern California in San Diego, using her 9/11 GI Bill benefits to pay for training and exam vouchers. Stroman worked through the program with a co-worker, doing their jobs at SAIC and training at New Horizons SoCal on the same schedule.

Stroman acknowledges that completing the training and passing the exams is hard with a full-time job and family. “You really have to find time to study daily, she says. “To see the goal through, you have to be committed.”

Over the months, Stroman earned the CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+ and CompTIA Security+ credentials, as well as the Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist certification, and began to apply for instructor jobs. In April, Stroman landed the SAIC job she wanted: teaching sailors about shipboard networks.

“Getting the certifications has helped me to move into the position as an instructor by boosting my confidence,” Stroman says.

“It’s been a good refresher to refine my skills,” she says of the certification training. “The credentials show potential employers that I still have the knowledge, and that they should hire me with all the experience I have as well.”

“If the vets are not taking advantage of this program, they are really losing out on an excellent opportunity,” Stroman says of her fellow veterans eligible for Post 9/11 benefits.

We’ve heard so much about cloud computing, and Dan Shapero, technical marketing executive of ClikCloud and CompTIA board member, is no stranger to the subject. Shapero co-founded ClikCloud in 2011 to offer cloud-based marketing support to small businesses, including website and social media management, email marketing and website analytics.

“The cloud has created a frictionless market for us to deliver high value services at an affordable price point,” Shapero said. “Economies of scale afforded by the cloud help keep our capital costs down and help fix our operating expenses.  In turn, we can put our efforts into value added service instead of maintenance of expensive infrastructure.”

Shapero works with CompTIA to advocate for fair and simple cloud computing policies and regulations. For example, public policies aimed at the IT sector should always be technology neutral, and cloud should be no exception. On the broader issue of federal adoption of cloud, CompTIA encourages the government to speed adoption of the cloud, both because it is a trendsetter for the broader economy and because it can foster greater innovation and development of cloud computing services.  The association believes that innovations associated with the cloud can benefit citizens and help save tax dollars.

Shapero’s extensive IT background has contributed to his great appreciation of cloud services. Before co-founding ClikCloud in 2011, he worked as part of a turnaround team at Avamar and as COO of NetApplications. Most recently, Shapero served as the executive vice president of Kaseya, where he discovered the urgency for affordable and efficient marketing services for small businesses across the country.

On small business issues, Shapero also finds himself aligned to CompTIA’s goal of supporting legislation in favor of business equity. This includes small business exemption within remote sellers legislation such as the “Main Street Fairness Act” (S. 1452), the Marketplace Equity Act of 2011 (H.R. 3179), and the “Digital Goods and Services Tax Fairness Act of 2011” (H.R. 1860 and S. 971). This is one aspect of CompTIA’s commitment to small- and medium-sized businesses.

“ClikCloud is hopeful CompTIA’s advocacy will keep the government from passing unnecessary rules that take away our fair advantage on a global basis, increase our costs by enforcing non-value added regulations and restricting commerce through increased taxation,” Shapero said.

Want to make your voice heard regarding this issue? Contact Lamar Whitman.

The President recently signed into law the JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) Act, which among its provisions would allow for crowdfunding for small businesses. Under the new law, companies can raise up to $1 million during a 12-month period under streamlined Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reporting requirements.

While businesses in high-growth geographic areas, such as Silicon Valley or Cambridge/Kendall Square have exposure to a variety of fast-growth organizations and leaders, this opportunity has not been widely available for other growing companies. The crowdfunding provision opens the door for innovators to access this same type of equity capital through a wide-scale, organized grassroots approach to funding businesses.  By tapping constituents, clients and colleagues, small businesses can utilize crowdfunding as an enabler for takeoff to a new stage of growth and development.

For small businesses like Boston-based Waka Digital Media Corp., headed by Jacob K. Braun, president and chief operating officer, access to new capital and financing is critical to the ability to grow and keep pace with customer demand for their services. Braun is not alone in his thinking. A recent CompTIA survey of 400-plus IT businesses found that micro IT firms (less than $1 million in annual revenue) and small IT firms ($1 million to $20 million in annual revenue) place the most emphasis on the importance of developing new capital options, at 39 percent and 38 percent, respectively.

“The key to driving continued growth and profitability across the technology sector is through innovative and disruptive products and solutions,” Braun commented. “Empowering fledgling and growing organizations with the flexibility of crowdfunding will enable a new wave of innovators, market challengers and thought leaders. Furthermore, these companies often develop focused products which IT and IS outsourcing organizations can leverage as part of the overall solution portfolio that they deliver to their customers.”

Sectors outside traditional VC view, including those in the IT sector, can raise small limited equity capital to differentiate, attract attention and grow to next level. In the IT sector, access to capital is particularly important for existing organizations that are working to harness distributed and cloud computing, or repackaging or redesigning solutions as cloud approaches.

The next step with the implementation of the law is for the SEC to issue regulations. This may be months away. However, the SEC is working to speed the process by soliciting early comments, and CompTIA’s public advocacy team is soliciting comments from members like Braun to make sure that the perspective and needs of small and medium sized firms are represented in the final rules.  Want to make your voice heard regarding this issue? Contact Lamar Whitman.

Generally, employers are required to file Form 941 on a quarterly basis to report and pay over federal income tax withholdings, social security and Medicare tax. They also must file a Form 940 annually to report federal unemployment taxes.  However, there are some exceptions.

Household employers are allowed to replace the four quarterly Form 941 filings and the annual Form 940 filing with a single annual return, Schedule H, which is filed as part of the payer’s annual individual income tax filing.  The payroll tax liability is not paid separately, but becomes part of the individual income tax liability calculated for Form 1040.  So instead of filing five separate returns and making five separate payments, household employers are allowed to prepare and file only one annual form along with their Form 1040.

Very small employers are allowed to replace the four quarterly Form 941 filings with a single annual Form 944, but this only applies to the smallest of employers – those having an annual liability of under $1000, which translates loosely to social security and Medicare tax on $6500 in wages (even less if federal income taxes were also withheld).  But unlike household employers, these very small employers must still file an annual Form 940 along with the annual Form 944.

When small employers speak of tax compliance burden, payroll tax filings are near the top of the complaint list.  The cost of preparing and filing these quarterly returns adds up.  Also, being required to file four or five returns — instead of one — translates into additional opportunities for inadvertent errors, increasing the possibilities of filing penalties.

Why don’t we just consolidate these payroll tax filings?

According to the SBA Office of Advocacy, in 2009, there were 27.5 million businesses in the United States, of which 99.9 percent or 27.4 million had fewer than 500 employees.  If the cost of filing a quarterly payroll tax return is $100, the total annual compliance costs incurred by these 27.4 million small businesses is about $10.9 billion.  If we allowed small businesses to file annually, four returns would be reduced to one, and the annual compliance costs would be reduced by 75 percent to $2.74 billion, a savings to small businesses of over $8 billion.  How could this not make sense?

It is important to note, that whatever the filing scheme (e.g., Form 941, Form 944 or Schedule H), employers are still required to pay in payroll tax liability on a periodic basis, the frequency of which generally depends on the amount of outstanding liability.  So, we are not talking about changing the payment schedule; we are simply speaking to how we can reduce compliance burden on small businesses, which will free them up to do what they do best:  create jobs and grow the economy.

This proposal would save small businesses billions in annual compliance costs, without loss of revenue to the Treasury.  Congress should work to identify simple steps to peel away at unnecessary tax compliance costs for the nation’s job creators.  Eliminating quarterly payroll tax filings for small businesses is a logical step.