Month: June 2004

Friday, 6/11
12:30pm
Communication 321

_Lunch will be served_

*Blogging for the Rest of Us*

For the last year I have been studying individually authored blogs and political blogs. I will discuss why people blog, why I believe blogging is like having a private radio station, and how democracy will be impacted by blogs and related Internet tools. The research was conducted in two milieux: blogging in and around Stanford University, and Burlington, Vermont where one of my students studied the use of blogs and other Internet tools in the Howard Dean campaign.

Bonnie A. Nardi is an anthropologist in the School of Information andComputer Science at UC Irvine. She is the author of A Small Matter of Programming: Perspectives on End User Computing (MIT Press, 1993) editor of Context and Consciousness: Activity Theory and Human-Computer Interaction (MIT Press, 1996), and co-author of Information Ecologies: Using Technology with Heart (MIT Press, 1999).

Chad Dickerson: June 09, 2004 Archives: Chad quotes Jerry Gregoire, the former CIO of Dell and Pepsico.

There are three immutable and unpleasant truths about information technology staffing and retention that make outsourcing the dodge of choice for the incompetent and lazy:
1. Turnover is expensive;
2. Retention rate is the most accurate indicator of leadership quality; and
3. Recruiting is the hardest job an IT manager has.

Well, yeah, this is pretty close to what I remember, though the use of “incompetent and lazy” seems a little harsh: if the CEO has been reading too many “IT doesn’t matter” articles, the IT director can find himself trying to “do more with less” with less than usual.

I think all three of those points are worth nailing taping on the machine room door (they’re usually glass doors, aren’t they?).

This is part of my longtime beef over resume databases and keyword searches over actual reading. I think competent IT managers read resumes for context and comprehension of an applicant’s position on a career arc and how that fits into the open position. And to some degree, I believe(d) in involving the rest of the team in reviewing and culling resumes, just as you would include them in the interview process (don’t all IT managers do this?).

Chad’s point is that outsourcing is a tool, not a magic bullet: I agree. I think you could make the case that some functions of IT are commodities (payroll, to quote his example). If it’s not a core competency for your business or part of your competitive advantage, it should be considered fair game to outsource.

It would be instructive to learn how many organizations think recruiting is a core function or a commodity.

Tampabay: TIA now verifies flight of Saudis:

The men, one of them thought to be a member of the Saudi royal family, were accompanied by a former FBI agent and a former Tampa police officer on the flight to Lexington, Ky.

The Saudis then took another flight out of the country. The two ex-officers returned to [Tampa International Airport (TIA)] a few hours later on the same plane.

For nearly three years, White House, aviation and law enforcement officials have insisted the flight never took place and have denied published reports and widespread Internet speculation about its purpose.

But now, at the request of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, TIA officials have confirmed that the flight did take place and have supplied details.

Continue reading “taking care of family?”

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: June 06, 2004 – June 12, 2004 Archives:

The bulk of the arguments rest on arguments of ‘necessity’ and the powers of the president as commander-in-chief. They also go into some depth about how people acting at the presidents order could avoid prosecution for demonstrably criminal acts.

The article is well worth reading for this alone.

But that whole discussion is different in kind from one passage in the report. I quote from the piece …

To protect subordinates should they be charged with torture, the memo advised that Mr. Bush issue a “presidential directive or other writing” that could serve as evidence, since authority to set aside the laws is “inherent in the president.”

So the right to set aside law is “inherent in the president”. That claim alone should stop everyone in their tracks and prompt a serious consideration of the safety of the American republic under this president. It is the very definition of a constitutional monarchy, let alone a constitutional republic, that the law is superior to the executive, not the other way around. This is the essence of what the rule of law means — a government of laws, not men, and all that.

The fact that our government has invested any time in coming up with a defense of torture is mind-boggling: here’s more on the author of the president’s legal argument.
Continue reading “the madness of king george?”

Say what you like about Reagan, he wasn’t paranoid . . . .

Capitol Hill Blue: Bush’s Erratic Behavior Worries White House Aides:

Worried White House aides paint a portrait of a man on the edge, increasingly wary of those who disagree with him and paranoid of a public that no longer trusts his policies in Iraq or at home.

“It reminds me of the Nixon days,” says a longtime GOP political consultant with contacts in the White House. “Everybody is an enemy; everybody is out to get him. That’s the mood over there.”

and my latest entry at the Guardian:

paranoia rules
when intelligence is sacked:
enemies list time

Guardian Unlimited Books | Games | Books games haiku:

drivers gnashing teeth
greedy guzzlers need their fill:
better oil your chain
Paul Worrall

Scanning through the comments here, someone mentioned the idea of cutting spending by chopping congressmembers’ pay.

I was thinking about that just the other day, in terms of an idea attributed to Ben & Jerry: I don’t know if it’s still in effect, but they had a policy of linking the CEO’s pay to that of the line workers, such that the big cheese could only make 10 times as much as the worker bee.

Why don’t we do this with our representatives? We could link congressional pay to the minimum wage.

The federal minimum wage for covered, nonexempt employees is $5.15 per hour. At 1,000 hours — they are in session about half the year — with a 10x multiplier, they would get $51,500: about a third of the $154,700 they get currently. If you can believe it, they started at $6/day.

I think it’s time we did something about this. You could always sign the petition.

The Way We Eat Now:

Ancient bodies collide with modern technology to produce a flabby, disease-ridden populace.

The PDF is available here.

Interesting look at how human society and how it has evolved faster than we have: our bodies have not figured out how to cope with modern processed foods, try as they might.