[Am-info] Technology for teamwork

[Roy Bixler]

On Monday 17 June 2002 07:06, Erick Andrews wrote:
> MS is pushing its way into collaborative software used by the military.
>
> See...
>
> http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/168/business/Technology_for_teamwork+.sht
>ml
>
> [...]
>
> ''Microsoft's [collaboration] products may be immature now, but they're
> getting better,'' says Mike Kennedy, the director of internal information
> systems at BAE Systems. ''We are using SiteScape today, but I don't believe
> over the long haul that SiteScape will be our solution. BAE has a stated
> position that ultimately [Microsoft] will be its collaborative
> environment.''
>
> It's unfortunate, Kennedy says, but we live in a world where no one ever
> gets fired for buying Microsoft - just as they used to say about IBM.
>
> [...]

Wow!  And he doesn't even attempt to give any reasoning for his idea to 
blindly switch software.  How else besides simple syncophancy can one explain 
the mindset of someone who's willing to make such a long term commitment to 
software neither he or anyone else has seen, just on a promise of "good 
intentions?"

By the way, this sounds exactly like the following from the "Warped 
Perspective" article pointed out by John Urbaniak.

<quote>
Every evidence of decadence in the modern world -- from priestly pedophiles 
to software megalomaniacs to political monkeyshine -- is the result of an 
attitude of smug, self-assured complacency. Decades of relative peace and a 
period of ever-increasing wealth have produced a generation of leaders who 
want to rig the game, to ensure that the outcome is fixed and that success is 
pre-determined. Stock-market and accounting swindlers are obvious adherents 
to this mindset of writing the rules so that the appearance of success is 
maintained at all costs. Technology companies -- at least the large, 
capital-driven ones -- are not immune to this trend, and in fact are among 
its primary examples.
</quote>

R.