Top government executives -- even the very top, politically appointed execs -- need to understand that federal employees have some strong opinions about the technology they use in their jobs. That was evident at the town-hall event Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held on July 10 for the department's employees.
A portion of the transcript:
MS. GREENBERG: Okay. Our next question comes from Jim Finkle:Can you please let the staff use an alternative web browser called Firefox? I just - (applause) - I just moved to the State Department from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and was surprised that State doesn't use this browser. It was approved for the entire intelligence community, so I don't understand why State can't use it. It's a much safer program. Thank you. (Applause.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, apparently, there's a lot of support for this suggestion. (Laughter.) I don't know the answer. Pat, do you know the answer? (Laughter.)
UNDER SECRETARY KENNEDY: The answer is at the moment, it's an expense question. We can -
QUESTION: It's free. (Laughter.)
UNDER SECRETARY KENNEDY: Nothing is free. (Laughter.) It's a question of the resources to manage multiple systems. It is something we're looking at. And thanks to the Secretary, there is a significant increase in the 2010 budget request that's pending for what is called the Capital Investment Fund, by which we fund our information technology operations. With the Secretary's continuing pushing, we're hoping to get that increase in the Capital Investment Fund. And with those additional resources, we will be able to add multiple programs to it.
Yes, you're correct; it's free, but it has to be administered, the patches have to be loaded. It may seem small, but when you're running a worldwide operation and trying to push, as the Secretary rightly said, out FOBs and other devices, you're caught in the terrible bind of triage of trying to get the most out that you can, but knowing you can't do everything at once.
SECRETARY CLINTON: So we will try to move toward that. When the White House was putting together the stimulus package, we were able to get money that would be spent in the United States, which was the priority, for IT and upgrading our system and expanding its reach. And this is a very high priority for me, and we will continue to push the envelope on it. I mean, Pat is right that everything does come with some cost, but we will be looking to try to see if we can extend it as quickly as possible.
Hat tip: BoingBoing via Mimex 1.1
COMMENTS
I knew there was a reason I don't work for the government - sad. Under-Secretary Kennedy sounds like the kind of guy who spends $10M with McKinsey rather than hire a few smart people.
Adam Nelson 07/25/09 09:39 pm ET
I have installed Firefox on considerable amount of Vista computers and have found it to be quite reliable. Most of the time when a user has a problem with firefox is when the user is the problem.
Vista has many bugs that have not been worked out as of yet. A lot of software does not work reliably with Vista, If Firefox isn't working right on your Vista computer you might want to check Vista and your firewall settings first.
Art Winters 07/18/09 04:46 pm ET
Regrettably, there doesn't seem to be a FireFox version that will work reliably with the Microsoft Vista operating system at this time, so that needs to be taken into account.
Larry R. Doane 07/15/09 07:12 pm ET
Never make statements when you do not know the details. You do not need to add specialists for Firefox. All A+ certified technicians have been trained on using multiple browsers. Most could probably handle Windows and Linux operating systems. Firefox can be set to install its own patches. It runs much cleaner than Explorer, with less non-work related popups and ads. Using Mr Kennedy's logic, we would need less IT people if everyone used Firefox, fewer patches, fewer attacks by hackers, and automatic updates.
anthony weishar 07/15/09 07:21 am ET