“There are two parallel processes happening simultaneously in the country's digital sector: both rapid digital transformation and the somewhat sorrowful transformation of memories.” Osman Gündüz, head of the Azerbaijan Internet Forum and director of the Multimedia Center, said this in an interview with Medianews.az.
He stated that digital resources built and developed over many years suddenly disappear and are integrated into larger platforms: “A few days ago, the e-Social mobile application, which operated for many years, ceased functioning. This resource migrated to the myGov platform. This, of course, is a logical and inevitable step in terms of centralizing and optimizing government services. It seems other government digital resources will experience the same fate in the near future.”
However, there is an unseen side to this process. These types of applications were not just programs. They were experiences formed over years. The effort of large teams, lessons learned from mistakes, accumulated knowledge. Coming to work in the morning and no longer seeing the system you have worked on for years is not just a technical change for a person – it creates a psychological void and a sense of loss of value.”
O. Gündüz emphasized that the issue is not only about the closure of a single resource: “It is about the risk of losing the values formed together with that resource. Another serious risk is related to staff turnover in the IT sector.
In recent years, brain drain in the IT sector of the country has intensified. Against the backdrop of such centralization processes, the risk of decreased job opportunities or motivation for front-end and mobile specialists, analysts, and developers is real.
In this regard, the approach must change. Teams of state resources that have been or will be discontinued should be protected. Their experience must be transferred to new platforms. These specialists should not be left aside; on the contrary, they should become the main carriers of the new ecosystem.
In the last 30 years, there have been several major waves of unemployment in the IT sector. Such a situation was especially observed after the devaluation. I hope our decision-makers are aware of what is currently happening. If human capital, experience, and motivation are lost, it will be more difficult to recreate them.”
Nailə Qasımova,
Medianews.az