Comments on: Rate your agency

By: Nick Cowie

Nick Cowie — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:59:26 +0000

Nothing is different over here, I spent time at typical West Australian Government agency where , in theory almost everything (webmail, social networking and any other website that might distract staff) is blocked. In practise because the blocking is so restrictive, almost half the staff had to have exemptions just to carry out their work. Which resulted in half the staff having unlimited internet access and the other half very restricted access.

I moved to another agency, with a more enlightened view and part of my role includes managing the blocking software. Because we have a number of public access machines, we block porn and hacking sites, but that is it.

Staff are encouraged to make use of social networking sites to interact with their peers outside the agency (as long as it does not interfere with their work).

How successful are the staff making use of social networking, don’t really know. I gave a talk on RSS feeds to 60 staff, only 4 where currently reading feeds. 2 of those at home via IE7, because the mandated browser in the agency is IE6. (and you are not supposed to install other software, the IT support is provided by another agency with more traditional views).

The only person who can access the website via their agency supplied mobile is the CEO. It does work, though it looks ugly (they use the same phone as I do ) and in a few months time it will work well in a mobile, because after revamping the current website, I will build a mobile specific site with IA designed for mobile users.

So it is not so different in WA than NZ.

By: Jason Ryan

Jason Ryan — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 01:54:27 +0000

Thanks Pete. The TradeMe article is a good example, once you got beyond the headline the facts were that the average use by public servants was around 2 minutes per week.

While I am guilty of excessive aversion to risk, I am more worried about CIO's impeding the ability of their agencies to attract, retain & develop suitable staff through clumsy policy decisions about technology.

From my experience, IE7 is hardly ready for enterprise, but I take your point about internal applications.

By: Pete

Pete — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:31:18 +0000

I know of a few CIO/CTOs that are or looking at blocking sites like Facebook, Bebo and YouTube at their agencies not because of abuse by staff, but the expectation that one day they will be OIA‘d on those site’s usage. This view is based on overseas and local media reports (like the “public servants spend 35,000 hours on Trademe” article back in 2006) and PQs (like last years wikipedia questions).

Firefox is still, from what I’m told, not quite ready for deploying and administrating enterprise wide. Plus you’ve got the added complexity of existing internal web applications that are built for IE only (like an EDMS). But, again I know a few places that are looking into it and it’ll happen sooner or later.

By: Jason Ryan

Jason Ryan — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:27:45 +0000

Thanks Megan. The guerilla approach is a reality for more than a few of us.

The fact that Facebook is one of the non-blocked sites is more depressing than encouraging...

By: Megan

Megan — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:36:33 +0000

I am doing what I can to push us into the 21st century. I set up our RSS feed without telling anyone at our central agency. I am hoping to get us to the point where I can say that (fill in the blank) is what we’ve been doing for AGES without any trouble. Social media sites are generally unavailable, although some, like Facebook, are.

And back I slink into my little office…