Why is the IT industry still so incapable of realising that the negative perceptions that surround it are largely caused by its unceasing use of jargon and rubbish buzzwords?

I realise this is hardly a new topic. There has been plenty of navel-gazing in the past on this recurring theme, but I’m inspired to write about it again thanks to Atos Origin.

The IT services provider has produced a pretty good study of the key trends affecting business and IT over the next few years. It’s called Look Out 2008+, and you can find out more about it here: http://lookout.atosconsulting.com/introduction/welcome-look-out-2008 - it’s well researched and worth a read.

But the stand-out for me was on one of the opening pages of the printed version, where the headline proudly states:

“Why is Look Out different? …because it removes the hype and gives a pragmatic view of the art of the possible.”

No hype – but “the art of the possible” ?

In other words – “We won’t use buzzwords, and to prove it, here’s a naff buzzphrase.”

This sort of jargoneering has always annoyed me no end, as it does so many people in the IT community who find themselves labelled as geeks because whenever those outside the industry read anything about what we do, it is full of all this meaningless drivel.

Sometimes it’s fine, and sometimes IT jargon becomes part of everyday language – the internet, the web, broadband, for example – but mostly it harms the image of the industry.

Is it any wonder the tech sector is struggling to attract new people to help tackle skills shortages if the first thing potential candidates read about working in IT is full of jargon and buzzwords? How is that a way to make this seem like an exciting place to work?

I wish I knew the answer – the IT industry can hardly say it has not been told remorselessly that this is a problem, yet still it cannot do anything to change.

Cutting the hype? The art of the impossible, perhaps.

I had an unusual professional experience this week – one that most people who work in IT would recognise in the same circumstances – that of being the only male in a conference room full of about 250 women.

Most technology conferences I attend are hugely male-dominated – a typical but sad reflection of the fact that just 16 per cent of the one million IT professionals in the UK are women, a figure that has been reached after the numbers dropped every year since the turn of the century.

Women in IT is one of those old technology industry perennials that is regularly discussed and investigated – yet for all the effort and initiatives to turn the situation round, still women leave the industry in droves.

My 250-to-one moment came at the Women’s Leadership Summit, a cross-industry event dedicated to showcasing the best in female business leaders from every sector of the UK. I chaired a panel debate looking at the IT industry and discussing the opportunities it presents for all potential workers – but with a particular focus on women.

I was accompanied on stage by six senior female leaders from six of the most influential consumer and business technology companies in the world – BlackBerry-maker RIM, Google, Microsoft, Dell, Cisco and Canon. Their skills and experience encompassed the full range of roles, from management to sales to engineering.

RIM’s European managing director, Charmaine Eggberry, talked about how the rapid growth of the company means it expands its workforce by 20 per cent every three months. RIM could hardly have more female-friendly employment policies – yet Eggberry still struggles to attract women even to apply for jobs. “But I have no problems recruiting men,” she said.

The concensus of opinion was that the biggest barrier to attracting women into IT is the image of the industry – a chicken-and-egg situation whereby the profession is seen as geeky, dull and male-dominated, and as a result it cannot attract a diverse workforce so remains seen as geeky, dull and male-dominated. Yet the senior speakers at this event were anything but – every one an excellent role model for the sort of career that IT can provide to anybody, regardless of gender or age.

I could debate endlessly the subject of women in IT and the reasons we have to reverse the trend, but what I took from the summit was more than simply this ongoing issue.

There was a noticeably different feel to this event, a different atmosphere to the usual male-dominated IT conferences – more open, more collaborative, more relaxed, more positive, and I would even say more inspirational and aspirational.

I walked out of the event smiling – which I suppose could be attributed to being the only bloke in a room full of successful and in some cases fairly wealthy women – but I can’t honestly say I felt the same way walking out of the keynote speech at the SAP conference last month. We simply cannot ignore the positive effect that a more balanced workforce would have on IT.

You would be amazed at the misogyny displayed in some of the letters Computing receives when we write about women in IT – a minority of course, but one the profession could do without.

Computing reporter Janie Davies has been researching the subject for an article in next week’s issue of Computing – I won’t steal her thunder but some of the tales of sexism she has been told are gobsmackingly bad; an embarrassment to every other man in IT.

Technology is becoming increasingly ubiquitous in our everyday lives, and the UK IT profession simply has to reflect the diversity of the people that use its products and services – or it will wither. We need 140,000 new entrants into the industry every year for the next five years – and that means significantly more than 16 per cent of those need to be female or the jobs will not be filled and the work will go overseas.

There is no shortage of initiatives to promote women in IT and to encourage women into IT. But there remains a shortage of women who want to work in IT. There is no overnight solution, but a solution must be found.