Ever since the Jeopardy Watson won in 2011, there has been an increasing buzz surrounding Watson. And although Watson has changed in the past 8 years, businesses still haven't taken full advantage of the capabilities that Watson has. There is no lack of interest about Watson's capabilities though, the COMMON Fall Conference had numerous sessions on Watson's capabilities in the IBM i world, all of which were very popular. So how do you get started with Watson? Laura gives you step by step instructions to help you get started and then gives you some great resources to help you on your Watson journey. One of those sources includes our own Scott Klement's website Open Source Projects. His website has downloads for source codes, service programs, and so much more. 

 
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Mastering the skills that you need to perform your job can take years and can give you a sense of pride and accomplishment. But rarely do the skills you learned years ago continue to be the skills that you need to have today. This seems to be the biggest challenge facing IBM i shops today.  Aging IBM i professionals who are getting ready to retire make up the majority of the professionals in the IBM i world, creating a real problem for those companies who employ them. At too many IBM i shops there is a crisis of stagnation of skills among the developers because they are ready to retire.  If you are a 60-year-old RPG programmer who knows everything about RPG, it could be intimidating to learn a new language. To grow and compete in their industries, IBM i shops need to develop a mindset of always training and learning something new and create a culture of learning with their developers.  This will give their business and their employees the tools to succeed far into the future.

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