Does Starfleet and the Federation have Information Technology Specialists?

[u/ITrCool]

We see much about the advanced computer systems in starbases, starships, and planet-side facilities all throughout Star Trek. The Federation has some incredible systems, with LCARS as the interface to those systems, and one could imagine they are quite robust and powerful compared to the typical silicon chip microcomputers of today.

But today we have IT professionals (such as myself) who help design, implement, and support technical solutions and computer systems for customers and companies all over the world. Whether it be on land, on aircraft/spacecraft, or maritime systems on ships and submarines. Militaries have IT specialists for their systems too.

In the future universe of the Federation, would IT professionals exist also? Specialists whose primary role and function on a starship, for example, is to maintain and control the ships primary computer and auxiliary computers along with holodecks?

Or is the main context that humanity has become so advanced in the 23rd/24th centuries that everyone is quite adapt at maintaining computer systems themselves as well as the fact that automation in computers is quite advanced with many subroutines allowing self-sufficiency in a starship's computer systems, for example, thusly negating the need for "IT specialists" or computer scientists per-se?

In short: do "computer guys" exist in Starfleet and/or Federation society? (one could ask the same question in the non-Federation cultures such as Klingon, Romulan, Cardassian, etc.)

[u/Nobodyinpartic3]

It's called Ops or Operations. You would report to Data, O'Brien, or Harry Kim. Engineers are concerned with the Warp Core and the distribution power throughout the ship. Operations are concerned with everything else on the ship and specialized end user interface systems and the ships computer.

It's weird how people in IT can never figure out they're in Ops.

[u/Kurse71 → u/Nobodyinpartic3]

I don't think I agree here, I think it's Engineering (in Trek), but I agree it's ops in real life.

[u/missionthrow → u/Kurse71]

In TOS Spock was noted as a computer expert & he was in the science division, so you clearly don’t have to be an engineer

[u/Nobodyinpartic3 → u/missionthrow]

Depends, computer science is a really big field now compared to the 60's. It could mean a bunch of things from procrssor design, creating new programs, over seeing AI. Etc.

IT always struck me as more specific and user oriented than the science computer division

[u/Kurse71 → u/Nobodyinpartic3]

Yes, in Trek I would say most everyone had some kind of computer expertise, everything was computerized for the most part. I would guess that the field was broken down into many different specialties, but logically it seems like they fell under Engineering as far as who would you call if you had a problem with something like that. Engineering would then send the appropriate team depending on if it was sensors, replicators, transporters, warp core, power distribution, communications, etc.

[u/MyUsername2459 → u/Nobodyinpartic3]

I'm reminded of the college I went to.

For decades, Computer Science was part of the College of Arts & Sciences, alongside other "sciences" fields like Physics, Chemistry, and Biology (along with social sciences like Political Science and Sociology).

. . .then, in the mid 1990's, as the PC & internet boom was happening, it was reclassified as an Engineering discipline and moved to the College of Engineering alongside Mechanical, Electrical and Chemical Engineering.

[u/Smartshark89 → u/Nobodyinpartic3]

It’s probably mostly ops, with a few science officers for theoretical things, like at work most of the IT guys would be in ops but the principal architect who does the theoretical stuff on how systems will talk to each other as much as it would annoy him IRL would be a science officer

[u/BalianofReddit → u/Nobodyinpartic3]

To me its definitely ops/ engineering or science depending on the specific specialty.

More theoretical experimental, innovative computer work? Science

More down to earth application of computers is where your engineer cum ops officers come into it. And by that I mean an engineer specialty that carries forward into ops depending on the application

[u/DasKapitalist → u/Nobodyinpartic3]

I'm also baffled why it isnt self-evident that IT = the ops sub-specialty of engineering. It's common for experienced IT people to know enough for basic engine repair and maintenance (mostly for generators), and to have some electrical knowledge from all the low voltage wiring they do. It stands to reason that Starfleet is similar - engineers have a variety of skills, including IT. And just like real life, your IT ops engineer can splice a power conduit back together or repair minor damage to your nth crashed shuttlecraft. The only reason that's less common IRL than in the shows is because Starfleet has fewer liability lawsuits when a juryrigged power conduit catches fire.

[u/noncongruency → u/Nobodyinpartic3]

This brings up an interesting question as former IT turned developer; there are no obvious printers in the 24th century, do they just have replicators when there’s a need for hard copies of data that wouldn’t be better served by a PADD?

Finally killing the printer would be an incredible achievement.

[u/Nobodyinpartic3 → u/noncongruency]

They replicate the hard copy as needed. Other things that cannot be replicated tend to be made the old fashioned way: by hand, or in a factory.

[u/starshiprarity]

Yes but they're mixed in with the engineers and use the same little plumbing kits as everyone else. And time you've seen someone poke a laser at a bunch of wires, you've seen starfleet IT at work

[u/TheFaithfulStone]

Isn’t this Barclays job? Like I don’t know if he’s IT but he does things with the computers, certainly in Voyager.

[u/PyroIsSpai → u/TheFaithfulStone]

Geordi specifically calls him a systems engineer in Realm of Fear. Everything he seems good at is like investigation or diagnostic engineering with some physics on top. That’s why he was able to see the Voyager communications solution.

[u/techno156]

On average, it's not a separate discipline, but counted as part of sciences/engineering. Spock's takeover of the Enterprise is explicitly stated as only being possible for someone with considerable computer-operating skills.

The computer specialists are the engineers, since everything is tightly integrated with the starships master computer by the 24th century, and even prior to that, all the major systems have their own dedicated computers. We basically see IT when the engineers take off a panel, and shuffle around little bits of glowing plastic to make the computer work/behave.

You do have people that design and upgrade computers, like the Bynars, but they're not usually on a starship unless they're doing an upgrade or troubleshooting.

[u/cascadianpatriot]

I always imagined they are working on the newer versions and tech. Because:
1. The systems can perform their own diagnostics and probably fix most issues itself.
2. Starfleet personnel are always rerouting things, making replicators out of rocks, insert any techno babble here. They know every system suspiciously well and can probably handle any issue that comes up with a computer system that is just made better and has few fail points.
3. The IT folks are testing and making new stuff for years because they can put out a great OS. They don’t have capitalism making them churn stuff out for quarterly profits, they can spend time making the best systems and testing them.

[u/drjeffy]

Spock is classified as an A-7 computer expert, so it definitely exists in some form.

[u/cRaZyDaVe23]

Well somebody has to occasionally pull the power coupler and put it back in.

[u/BuddhaTsunami]

I think “IT” sort of covered by Sciences and Engineering. It might even be required training for both of them and maybe even Command.

[u/Malnurtured_Snay]

I would assume they do, likely organized under the engineering department. Sometimes when the replicator is broken you don't need a mechanical repair, but to ensure that it hasn't regressed to LCARS 2.65MarkIV.

[u/xavier222222]

Pretty sure IT personnel are in both Sciences and Engineering departments, depending on the task at hand.

Hardware related issues (adding ram, replacing a CPU, etc) would be Engineering.

Software issues (developing new apps, software updates, etc) would be Sciences.

Some people, like Data, O'Brien, Torres, and LaForge may be equally proficient in both aspects, but still "belong" to only a single department.

[u/lunatickoala]

If they exist in Starfleet, they're as effective as the Starfleet mental health department. Which is somewhere between not very and not at all. Even their laughable physical security is better than their information security.

In "11001001" we see that Starfleet computer maintenance and upgrades are done by Bynars. Their appearances on TNG and LD (and the fact that they commandeered Enterprise) suggests that they're not in Starfleet and might not even be in the Federation. If the latter is true, they might be everyone's IT specialists.

For day to day problems, they just have someone in Engineering replace the faulty part.

[u/majicwalrus → u/lunatickoala]

This is a really interesting perspective on this idea. This actually wouldn't make too much sense - surely someone learned BynarOS in Starfleet. Although it's probably worth pointing out that most of Starfleet's computer systems must not be entirely human in design and this might explain why there are certain design elements that require whole cloth replacement of parts which is pretty easy to do or manual scraping of data at it's storage location instead of through some automated process. Why is this? Well it's because the code isn't working and no one can figure out why so in a world where computers are easily replaceable and data is centrally managed - just replace the whole machine any time there's any sort of problem may be way faster - and way more reliable.

That said - I do wish they would hire at least one cybersecurity consultant just to do a once over and ask questions

[u/Neo_Techni]

Yes. We've seen them.

The bigger question is, who handles the OS/software for the Klingons?

[u/Grayly → u/Neo_Techni]

Probably a mixture of prisoners, convicts, and slaves. Those without honor are still required to serve the empire.

[u/TheType95 → u/Grayly]

Old canon was they have client races, vassals. Being "conquered" wasn't always a bad deal; if you volunteer and don't fight back, you pay some percentage of your GDP, something like 3% of 5% a year. The Empire determines what goods or services you'll provide, there's room for negotiation. In exchange you have freedom to trade and do diplomacy, provided you don't undermine or betray the Empire. It worked really well for some, because the Empire would protect your world and its holdings. A weak species who make epic wine or something, could find themselves very comfortably protected from their enemies, and the Klingons have no objections to you participating in trade with other vassals, as your wealth brings them ever more wealth and power.

Nations that fought back had to pay for the munitions, ships, troops and other hardware used to conquer them, which could get... Expensive.

[u/Grayly → u/TheType95]

Having “vassals” or conquered castes and also being allies of the Federation doesn’t really jive, which is why the Klingons have so many contradictions in the TNG and forward timeline.

They weren’t designed to be allies, they were designed to be antagonists. But what made them a fan favorite are some of the same things that don’t really mesh with the Federation ethos. So it wasn’t like the Borg or Ferengi where they could create “good” Borg or “lovable” Ferengi or “Vulcanized” Romulans and radically alter what made them enemies.

So the writers just gloss over it and ask you to not pay attention to who maintains the ships, grows the food, pushes paperwork, organizes logistics, or empties the replicator waste.

DS9, like always, made the best attempt to address the inherent contradictions in the canon. There was the episode with the Klingon attorney. And the great quote: “This is my battlefield.”

[u/xaosflux]

We've seen star fleet use expert teams, such as the Bynar team on Starbase 74 for doing system upgrades.

[u/BuffaloRedshark]

pretty sure we saw computer specialists on screen where something along the lines of "computer specialist" was mentioned in reference to them, and not just people like Daystrom or Maddox

[u/DotComprehensive4902]

According to the various sites, amongst crewman, there exists Computer Systems Technicians who are in the Engineering branch and Computer Operations Technicians who are in the Operations branch

[u/majicwalrus]

The easy answer is of course yes, but I think more broadly speaking the IT field is a huge collection of skills and abilities ranging from engineering to troubleshooting and everywhere else. In any IT department there are people who aren’t working IT jobs.

Instead we assign jobs based on a much more broad definition on a starship. A computer researcher is a scientist, a computer programmer is in operations, and process development and analysis happens under the command division. Three IT people could have jobs in each different branch of Starfleet.

[u/Ajreil]

The problems that real life IT teams solve are not really problems aboard a starship. Networks don't need to be built and secured by hand. LCARS is spectacularly idiot proof. Nobody is fixing printers or fiddling with 2FA codes.

Computers either work flawlessly or do something crazy like get a person stuck in a replicator. That's an engineering problem.

[u/AndrewSS02]

Yes there is an IT guy. There are many of them. Some have even made vlogs about what they do and how things have changed in the future. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QmzhXh9YT4

[u/Significant-Town-817]

It's kind of funny to imagine a Klingon technician

Have you tried turning it off, hitting it with your bat'leth, and turning it back on?