Splicetoday

Digital
Sep 01, 2009, 10:41AM

Live free, browse hard!

"Why corporate IT should let us browse any way we want."

During a town hall meeting for State Department workers last month, an employee named Jim Finkle asked Hilary Clinton a very important question: "Can you please let the staff use an alternative Web browser called Firefox?" The room erupted in cheers. Finkle explained that he'd previously worked at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, where everyone enjoyed Firefox. "So I don't understand why State can't use it," he said. "It's a much safer program."You don't have to know Jim Finkle or anyone else at the State Department to recognize their pain. Millions of workers around the world are in the same straits: They've heard about the joys of Firefox, the wonders of Google Docs, or any number of other great programs or Web sites that might improve how they work. Indeed, they use these apps at home all the time, and they love them. But at work they're stymied by the IT department, that class of interoffice Brahmins that decides, ridiculously and capriciously, how people should work.

Discussion
  • co-signed! If the state/fed insists on using Internet Explorer and the MS Office they should be getting much larger kickbacks and incentives from Microsoft. But what does microsoft do? Chain gov to buying their products and then funding the non-profit world...Come to think of it, that part is pretty cool. But Firefox at work would make everyting much cooler.

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