Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Josep L. Guallar-Esteve <jlguallar AT maduixa.net>]

Hi,

I am sure that you would like it. It is inspiring to find out that our 
leaders, aside from linning their pockets, can have a little of a geek inside 
themselves.

----------  Missatge transmès  ----------

Subject: EPHRAIM SCHWARTZ: "Wireless World" from InfoWorld.com, Thursday, 
October 25, 2001
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 11:23:12 -0500
From: WirelessWorld AT bdcimail.com
To: jlguallar AT maduixa.net

========================================================
EPHRAIM SCHWARTZ      "Wireless World"     InfoWorld.com
========================================================

Thursday, October 25, 2001

Mobile computing commentary by Ephraim Schwartz


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'INNOCENTS' SPEAK OUT

Posted October 19, 2001 01:01 PM  Pacific Time


A FAMILIAR expression begins with the words "out of the
mouths of babes." In its current, nonbiblical usage,
this implies that out of the mouths of unsophisticated
children comes the plain truth.

Well, believe it or not, maybe we should modify the
saying to read "out of the mouths of congresspeople."

Listen in as I quote, verbatim and with minimal editing
(thanks to "sunshine" laws), a conversation that took
place at a Committee on House Administration meeting
among members of the committee and staff as they
discussed using wireless devices, prior to the Sept.
11 attacks.

James M. Eagen III, chief administrative officer of the
U.S. House of Representatives, said, "The challenge
with these tools that are called PDAs, or personal
digital assistants, is that the market is still
sorting out right now. You have the Palm. You have the
BlackBerry. You have Windows CE, which is Microsoft's
product. They are all a little bit different, and they
all don't work with one another. There are challenges
to making them work for an entire campus like the House.

"We have 11,000 users all over the country -- not just
here in Washington -- and 900 district offices, and a
vast network that connects all those offices. So we
have spoken to Gartner. They are one of the
pre-eminent technology consulting firms in the world.
Their advice right now for institutions like ours are
[sic] to kind of sit tight for about six months and
watch what happens.

"I think there is convergence in the marketplace that
is going to mix pagers, cell phones, [and] laptops
into one device eventually so you don't have to carry
multiple ones around, and it is going to be wireless.
It is just not there yet."

The then-chairman of the committee, William M. Thomas,
said, "If the gentleman will yield briefly, at least
on these generational changes, the costs are
relatively reasonable for the enormous gain in
productivity. I do think, though, that if a member
finds something that works well for them." Thomas did
not complete that thought, but the intention appears
to be that if you find something now, buy it.

"The convenience of extending your ability to be
connected to the office puts enormous strains on our
ability to ensure security, which, if you can get in
one way, we have to ensure we wall it off," Thomas
continued. "So I know it is going to be frustrating
for some members who get pitched with something that
works well, but that security aspect really has to be paramount."

At another point in the conversation, Thomas says, "The
final concern, and this is what we are working on, is
the outside vendor: the promises made and the
performance delivered. There is still a significant
gap between those two."

It appears that these folks in Congress don't need the
world's "pre-eminent technology consulting firm" to
see the truth. And maybe you don't either.

Subsequent to Sept. 11, the new Committee Chairman,
Robert Ney, equipped all 435 House members with
BlackBerry devices.

Tell me the plain truth at ephraim_schwartz AT infoworld.com.

Ephraim Schwartz is an editor at large in InfoWorld's
news department. Get this column free via e-mail each
week. Sign up at
http://www.iwsubscribe.com/newsletters .



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MORE WIRELESS WORLD
For a complete archive of his InfoWorld columns visit
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"Will XML supplant EDI as the de facto enterprise data-
transfer mechanism? Given the clear rate of industry
adoption, I would say the eventual answer is yes."

--"Enterprise Strategies" columnist James R. Borck.

http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/01/10/22/011022opborck.xml?1025thwi

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Copyright 2001 InfoWorld Media Group Inc.


This message was sent to:  jlguallar AT maduixa.net

-------------------------------------------------------

-- 
Josep Lluis Guallar-Esteve