The whole article is an interesting read if you are, like me, a tech junkie or if you've ever wondered how technology and government work together.
Interesting stuff:
My first glimpse of the dangers inherent in tackling government adoption occurred when a state senator asked me as a specialist to look at ways to cut budget dollars in a deep hole called the Department of Information Services.
Essentially, we wanted to stop budget cuts in social services and shift the revenues from dead IT projects currently drawing budget money to the general fund.
In my opinion, all hell broke loose. I have never seen so many alter-egos, shills and groups invented by Microsoft to stop free software adoption in government. I have also never seen as many dumb and dumber people occupying important positions in government.
I would characterize the people involved in these type of organizations as nasty bureaucrats. I have never met one of them who cared about the people they serve. The ones I have met only care about their careers. They would cut the heart out of the person in the next office in a minute. I saw this as an intern at the Library of Congress, as an auditor in a DoD Management and Operations contractor, as a Oracle Financials documentation specialist at a DoE facility where I found misappropriations that ran about 50% and how they kept them off the books.
Here's the article's biggest truth:
I decided to use the wisdom I gained in a lifetime of experience to accept the things I can't change. I also think that anyone in America who believes our government cares about us lives in a dream world. I don't care if you're a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian or whatever. The people running for office are politicians. They don't listen and they don't care.
Does that mean I won't muckrake, write and investigate? No, it doesn't mean that. I just won't work with politicians who claim they want to save our citizens money, keep jobs in the US and help all people in the US survive above the poverty level.
There you go. How our government really feels about the job they are elected to do.
Tags: [Tom Adelstein], [Linux], [Department of Information Services], [Microsoft], [politicians], [Democrats], [Republican], [Libertarian]
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