I have to admit, my main reaction to the Obamacare debacle was, “What do you expect from a society that puts down technically competent people?” Apparently the administration is starting to wise up — rhetoric and throwing money at problems isn’t enough. Sometimes you need people who know what they’re doing.
Mr. Obama has said the HealthCare.gov experience shows the need for the government to improve the return on the nearly $77 billion it spends annually on information technology.
—Health-Site Woes Spur Hiring Push, Wall Street Journal
At least Obama realizes the problem exists. I wish him luck in solving it.
January 7, 2014
And where do you think that the geeks will be found?
I agree with Mike. The problem isn’t the lack of geeks, it’s that the people in charge don’t understand what needs to be done to make things work. And making things work isn’t important until it affects the politics.
since i suffer from techno phobia and techno failure . . .
i have absolutely nothing but ADMIRATION for geeks. thank god for them.
I agree. Yay, geeks!
To be called a Geek was meant to be an insult. If that isn’t putting down smart people I don’t know what is. I LOVE GEEKS!
The Chinese & other countries are giving GEEK a new status.
Again, yay, geeks!
There is plenty of technically competent IT people. One of the blogs I read is by a fellow who does quite a bit of IT related business in DC and with the government. From what I recall, the problems were related to project scoping (and changing scope), project design (and changing the design), project scheduling (and changing the schedule), and, WORST OF ALL, failure to include documentation in the code and failure to adequately test before implementation. These were primarily management problems, bureaucracy problems, and political problems.
Need more competent IT people — repurpose some of the NSA geeks.
Well said. I’ve read about all the last minute changes. As if just saying you want something will magically produce it.
What Mike said
Agreed.
The British government is in a similar mess over welfare reform. They’re trying to integrate all welfare benefits into a single benefit called universal credit, but the development of the necessary computer software has been repeatedly delayed, partly because people with the advanced IT skills needed keep pulling out and sufficiently qualified replacements have to be found.
Part of the problem is people with advanced skills tend to be creative and don’t like the restrictions that come with working for the government.