Former Chelsea and Newcastle United football manager Ruud Gullit is often remembered as the man who coined the term 'sexy football'.

Gullitt said in a recent newspaper interview that he wishes he'd never used the phrase, and it's haunted him ever since.

But we're not afraid to take the same responsibility for IT. What's wrong with saying that technology can be sexy?

IT has a huge image problem to overcome - being seen as geeky, technical and boring does nothing to help the industry grow. As technology becomes increasingly pervasive, such a negative attitude will eventually become a hindrance.

We'll still need the geeks - every industry has its geeks. They exist in the motor trade, in music and television, but nobody calls these geeky industries.

Vodafone's recent 3G launch was a demonstration of what is possible. The launch party was hosted by Jonathan Ross, with live music from Jamelia, and celebrity guest appearances from ITN's Trevor McDonald, Ralf Little from The Royle Family, and super-models Eva Herzagova, Jodie Kidd and Sophie Anderton. Hardly the line-up for your typical technology promotion.

Clearly the event was targeted at consumers, and a business audience is quite different, but it was great to see people getting excited about what technology can do, rather than bored by how it works.

The image problem doesn't exist everywhere. In India, IT is cool. Young men working in IT says it helps them pick up girls - can you imagine anyone saying that in the West? Young women working in Indian IT see it as a way to financial independence. In China, students are flocking to computer courses in the hundreds of thousands, just as the number of IT graduates is plummeting in the UK and US.

These are the cultures that UK IT will increasingly be competing against.

IT's image problems are reflected in the coverage of technology in many national newspapers - always shock horror stories about hacking and phishing and how dangerous it is to be out there roaming on the wild world web. Some of the recent TV coverage of the dangers of using online banking must have sent thousands of people rushing to bin their home PCs lest they be used as a portal to the seventh circle of Hell. The Times ran a banner front page headline recently claiming that the major banks will no longer reimburse victims of phishing - but if you read down to about paragraph 20, all the banks' spokepeople said was: yes it's an increasing problem, and we may have to reconsider our position at some point.

Of course there are potential pitfalls and publicising the risks is good, so long as it is balanced with realism and simple advice. But where are the reports saying how much benefit technology is doing in transforming the public sector and improving the way we live and work? They are in Computing, I'm pleased to say, but wouldn't it be great for all of us if the average Sun reader (or even Times, Guardian or Telegraph reader) felt the same way?

Part of the problem comes from the complexity that IT suppliers continue to build into technology. We are still a nation that struggles to program a video recorder, and product designers need to take this into account. A computer-literate friend recently bought a home wireless network - and took about six hours to install the system, downloading all the requisite drivers and patches needed for his PC environment. Is it surprising that the typical PC World shopper thinks technology is only for geeks and techies? The whole industry has to find ways of making its products much easier to install and use - Apple is one of the few to use consumer principles to simplify its offerings.

Some might snigger at the suggestion of making technology sexy, but talk to many of the senior figures in the industry and there is a recognition that perceptions of IT must change. If they don't, we risk major problems in introducing new innovations, in making technology a vital part of everyday life, and in attracting the best and brightest talent to work in the industry.