[LINK] Are clueless politicians holding back IT?

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

Stilgherrian wrote:
> Gentle Linkers,
>
> Generally I don't pimp the stories I write on Link unless the topic  
> comes up in conversation and I can say "Oh, yeah, I've already written  
> my opinion on that". But this one may be of more direct interest...
>
> Are clueless politicians holding IT back?
> http://www.zdnet.com.au/insight/software/soa/Are-clueless-politicians-holding-IT-back-/0,139023769,339299345,00.htm
>
> Amongst other things, I posit a checklist of things the pollies should  
> know about, similar to the checklist I did for business managers last  
> year.
>
> “I don’t understand computers” is not an excuse.
> http://stilgherrian.com/internet/managers_must_understand_computers/
>
> Am I being to harsh?
>   
IMHO:
Politicians have to deal with a wide range of subjects and they cannot 
be experts in all of them.

It is difficult to keep up with and know about new things.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Politicians have staff and advisors who should be experts in important 
things.

Your "checklist for politicians" might be appropriate for ministers 
(government and shadow) with responsibility for, or a strong vested 
interest in, ICT (in government it's always ICT, not IT) but for the 
average pollie, I think it goes a bit too far.

And talking about new things, in your point 1 you state that the NBN is 
a wholesale network: If I read the architecture document <

http://apo.org.au/research/national-broadband-network-reference-architecture

 > correctly, the NBN is capable of being both a wholesale and retail 
network.

-- 
 
Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Canberra Australia
brd at iimetro.com.au