If you see a tablet laptop (it’s a laptop with a screen you can swivel around and use as a touch screen instead of with the keyboard) around Canberra that doesn’t belong to the owner (ie no proof of ownership or purchase or they don’t know anything about it) that they’re trying to sell then please contact me or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

UPDATE: More info over at Canberra Craigslist

But there’s always been a strong link with IT because of the technical nature of design and development and the requirement for development and testing environments, web servers, admin access to systems, third party applications and tools etc - which means that the areas I’ve worked in aren’t quite IT but necessarily outside of the standard operating environment of most other staff in an organisation.

It’s like working in an IT outpost where we are a technology area embedded within a business area such as a specific outcome of an organisation or government department or within a business-focussed information and communications area. We work outside the procedures of IT because we’re not IT yet we need to interface with IT’s procedures which often are not quite relevant to the work we do or in some cases are made up on the fly because IT omits to accommodate our area into their planning and procedure development.

The result? Because there’s no defined interaction protocols between ourselves and IT it all works around building a good relationship with key personnel in IT and then asking for favours and hoping everyone is in a good mood that day. It’s not impossible - I’ve made it work in the past and it takes a lot of effort but the end result is that you can get things happening that sometimes even other sub-teams within IT couldn’t make happen because procedure explicitly disallows it - but our unique position necessitates exceptions unless of course it relates to things like IT Security in which case there are no compromises.

It’s both a position of freedom and flexibility and of responsible utilisation of that trust relationship with the main IT area which ultimately has control of the servers and the networks … though I did at one stage have a test and staging server for a system under my desk because it wasn’t IT’s responsibility to maintain the infrastructure for that system; but cases of needing to run mini-IT infrastructure yourself are rare and generally not a good idea - even if you also hire a database administrator, security expert and network administrator into your team. Apart from the fact that IT will not like it that fact is you will never be able to set up the necessary infrastructure to do it properly and at best it’ll be an ad hoc half-back installation that OH&S will scream at when they walk into your office and see blue CAT5 cable running along the floor with servers sitting on desks cooled by an exhaust fan that’s been pulled out of the roof and placed next to them …

Is it a good way of working? Well - perhaps in some cases a formal MoU would help ensure that we at least got some sort of assistance and cooperation when needed and guarantee the IT staff responsible for the security and reliability of the network that we’re not going to allow n00bs to break anything or introduce risks … but as long as you’re open to a bit of negotiation and relationship-building with various people in IT who can help you get the thing you need so you can do your job then it works out in the end.

The only problem is when someone gets wind of something you want done and shuts it down for whatever reason. When IT wants to say no to something then that’s pretty much the end of it unless you go over their head … which is something you’ll have to decide on a case by case basis; whether it’s worth it (think a Red Storm Rising style escalation) or pick your battles.

Any other stories of people who’s worked in similar situations and teams?

• Benefits Realisation
• Business Involvement
• Communication
• Contract Management
• Culture
• Governance
• Implementation Roles and Responsibilities
• Issues management
• Management of External Communications
• Off-system Customer Experience Testing (CET)
• Phased Implementation and Transition Plan
• Process
• Project Approach
• Project Resourcing
• Release Authority Board (RAB)
• Release Authority and Business Readiness Meetings
• Security Accreditation
• Staff Recruitment
• Stakeholder Management
• Testing Environment
• Testing Methodology
• Testing and Piloting

The full article by Michael Krigsman on ZDNet: UK gov’t releases transparent post-failure analysis

We covered a lot of topics during the 40 minute chat … although a) I talk fast; and b) I didn’t go into too much depth on some of the topics as they’re more the domain of people like Stephen Collins, Laurel Papworth, Justin Kerr-Stevens and others - so it was mainly an overview of several things, including:

• Free Australia Wireless: The aim of the project, progress to date, the technology, why local government should be interested in this project, why local government should not be driving this project - unless the right business model is adopted (something the NSW government has failed to realise several times now) and what the correct business model is (something I’m working on and will either blog about on Free Canberra Wireless or develop as part of the content for the new Free Australia Wireless site.
  
  
• BarCamp and BarCampGov (particularly mentioned UK and NZ, although there may been other gov BarCamps held).
  
  
• OpenAustralia and TheyWorkForYou: What those projects are and their role in general community initiative to create a feedback loop to the political process for policy development.
  
  
• Government 2.0: Government engaging with and consulting the community through the use of appropriate enabling technology to inform policy development and test policy before it’s rolled out.
  
  
• Social computing: The benefits of social networking tools as a productivity platform and how standard government IT policy of blocking access to social networking sites is inhibiting progress.
  
  
• Recruiting: Old-school recruitment and lack of understanding of Web 2.0 and the modern web worker as opposed to recruitment agencies like Happener who “get it”.

… and so on.

Really enjoyed talking to Dave - he works in the IT & technology sector (in fact he’s a director of Crystal Approach) so had a head start there; already knew about wireless networking technology, about BarCampCanberra and he supports government collaboration with the public and realises it’s the smart thing to do - instead of government doing what they thing best then trying to force policy on people who have had no buy-in to the process and no reason to want to adopt it!

So next step - well I’m writing up some of our main messages and goals with Free Australia Wireless specifically for use in a government policy context, so we can get local government talking about this project - and hopefully get the right people in government and the commercial wireless network technology space talking to each other to go about creating a city-wide wireless mesh network that’s free for public access (which is what Free Australia Wireless will focus on) but instead of being a dead investment like the NSW government’s attempt in the Sydney CBD actually provide infrastructure the government can use; for example by providing ubiquitous secure access for authorised government and infrastructure personnel and systems to the dedicated 4.9 GHz public safety or safety and security band.