Tectonic Speed of Government

https://www.flickr.com/photos/63056612@N00/155554663/ by freezelight Venting about the disruption of unsolicited sales calls and e-mails.  These modern scourges are enabled by new technology and allow sales to be more efficient but definitely not more effective.   ************************************************************************** ********** Disclaimer: All of the ideas expressed in this article are my personal statements and opinions, and do not reflect the opinions/statements of the City of Urbana. ************************************************************************** ********** Look, I get it. Salespeople have a job to do; their job is to sell. That means reaching out to prospective clients and offering their products. ( Note 1 ... notes are below.) As one of those prospects, I want to be clear about why I don't respond to unsolicited sales calls or e-mails. ( Note 2 )     It’s not you, or your product, it’s the sales process . Here are three

Photo borrowed from this site: http://chucksadventures.blogspot.com/2015/10/ How do you connect data from different systems? (Hint: not easily...)   This article originally appeared in Government Finance Review magazine as " Using Data Analysis for Better Decision Making " (June 2019). I changed the name because their title was assigned, and it seems appropriate that "data rivers" feed "data lakes"  ********************************************************************* ***** ********** Disclaimer: All of the ideas expressed in this article are my personal statements and opinions, and do not reflect the opinions/statements of the City of Urbana. ************************************************************************** ********** Let’s start with the bad news: there are no magic solutions here. Data Connectivity is an aspirational goal, like Operational Efficiency.  As defined in this article, “Data Connectivity” is the act of taking i

photo credit: https://delectant.com/whats-lost-when-we-photograph-life-instead-of-experiencing-it/crowd-of-cell-phones/ Speaking to you with direct advice to manage your technology life, as if I were your personal IT Director.  Which, by the way, I'm not.  So please don't ask me to fix your technology.  ; ) *************************************************************** Disclaimer: All the ideas expressed in this article are my personal statements and opinions, and do not reflect the opinions/statements of the City of Urbana. *************************************************************** Technology is difficult. Unfortunately, that can’t be fixed because it’s a basic law of the universe that complex things have more problems.  As annoying as this can be for the casual user, imagine how painful it is for IT support teams who spend their days dealing with the technology problems of everyone else. (P.S. Systems Administrators Appreciation day is at the end of J

Recently, I wrote two posts discussing why IT Projects take a long time: one on the Procurement Process and one about Project Implementations .  They were written during a time of three simultaneous projects, and they were therapy for me to exorcise some complaints... and make suggestions for others. From the start, I planned those as two topics – and I thought they'd finish the series. But this third part was a surprise, and the greatest lesson I learned from those projects. ********************************************************************************************* Disclaimer: All of the ideas expressed in this article are my personal statements and opinions, and do not reflect the opinions/statements of the City of Urbana. ********************************************************************************************* “It ain’t over till it’s over” - Yogi Berra on baseball, not IT projects. Trick Question : When is a software project over? Answer : Never