I can share much of the sentiment of Thanksgiving Day, even though traditionally we British would be more inclined to celebrate Advent. Well, more accurately we prefer, traditionally, to celebrate November by burning, in effigy, a traitorous heretic (Guy Fawkes Night). However, the general mood at the end of November is one of gratitude. Where once it was thanks for a good harvest and full store-cupboard, it is now more generally for our relative good-fortune.

We who work in IT have a lot to be thankful for, given the continuing boom in the demand for people with IT skills, and the intrinsic interest of the work.

How can we show our gratitude to society? I'm particularly pleased to see how many developers want to 'give something back', by contributing to open-source projects to spread the benefits of technology to places, organisations, academic disciplines and people that would otherwise never benefit from such expertise, due to the cost. The free sharing of information has become a distinguishing characteristic of many of the practitioners of IT. I especially like those IT projects specifically geared to making life better for the least fortunate of all.

Of course, in the SQL Server community, many DBAs and database developers regularly give something back by volunteering their time and knowledge for organizations such as PASS. To quote from them:

"Making content and communications relevant for an international audience to help people connect, learn and share across boundaries of geography, language, and time."

I wish I did more for PASS. My own community work involves doing free database work for local societies. The only concern is that, although it starts out as altruism, I get so much benefit from it in terms of ideas and inspiration that I end up feeling rather selfish doing it. It also becomes a secret pleasure, tinged with guilt because it is so much fun.

Talking to my colleagues in the industry, I'm amazed by the range of community work being done by them quietly, without publicity: DBAs seem inclined to express their gratitude for their good fortune effectively, by giving back to their own community, and society at large. Long may it continue!

Phil Factor.