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Time to end personal technology serfdom!
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Date Posted: Monday February 04, 2008 03:55:55 PM
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Ubiquity associate editor and champion of computing sanity, Espen Andersen, beseeches us all to end laptop serfdom. It seems like a reasonable request, so let's do what he says.

http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/volume_9/v9i5_andersen.html

 Message edited by: Discussion on Tuesday September 09, 2008 01:01:48 PM

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nielsenb
Date Posted: Tuesday February 05, 2008 11:10:14 AM
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Right on. In my teaching I try to get this across, but just as Espen has found, there are a lot of IT folks who want to nail everything to the floor. The comment about more knowledgeable users is also true, and is an area that upper management needs to come to terms with more comfortably. The ECDL program (at http://www.icdl.org) I think has the right idea on this, but I have no direct experience with it in an organization. It's going to be a lot of work down the road for many forward-thinking organizations, but definitely worth it to have creative employees with creative tools in their hands.

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meltond
Date Posted: Tuesday February 05, 2008 11:50:44 AM
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Being a bit of an IT guy, I think I can understand the reluctance of IT departments to "open the doors" to uncontrolled PCs and other devices. But, I also think that the article contains the real heart of the matter near the end where it states:

"They [the companies engaged with BSG] are tired of controlling something that doesn't necessarily need controlling."

In my experience the companies are *really* trying to control the flow of information [or "Intellectual Property"]. That is something, I believe, a company should control; especially in a knowledge-based business. Because of a lack of good controls on the flow of information the companies resort to controlling the tools that are used to manipulate the information.

I think that the first people to loosen their hold on the tools will be those that have taken the time to learn how to manage the information in their care. The large companies referred to in the article have probably invested significantly in information management processes and can afford to take the risks (and enjoy the benefits) of an open IT infrastructure.

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