Full Disclosure mailing list archives
Professional Groups
From: "Daniel Sichel" <daniels () Ponderosatel com>
Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2004 12:31:03 -0800
It's time we as a professional group start talking and walking like adults (at least more than in the past), I think. Just playing with computers is fine, but not enough.
Agreed. And believe me, I have spent many an hour trying to figure out
how to approach the problem. Unfortunately, every solution I can come up with involves educating the masses . . . many of whom don't want to be confused with facts . . . ;>
This is off topic but I couldn't help myself. What we need is a union. Why? Well right now, management generally buys the software that has the cutest infobabes, the best promise, or safe branding (Microsoft). If we had a union that negotiated a contract that paid us extra for fixing software failures or broken installs, so that the bottom line got hurt by the crap these people sell, it would take about 5 minutes for the priorities to change in purchasing decisions and for SLAs and tech support to be ratcheted up where they belong. Speaking as a US citizen, if we were Teamsters and honored their picket lines think of the leverage we would have. Scab truck drivers are available, but imagine the chaos of scab sys admins or firewall administrators? And of course when the Teamsters honor our picket lines, that wouldn't hurt a bit. Be nice to keep our jobs from going to third world countries where tech professionals are even more exploited than here. But of course, all my technical professional colleagues will pooh-pooh the idea of a union. They always do. Think about this, a union for us could be like the bar associatio for lawyers or the AMA for doctors. We could impose stringent professional abilities, certifications, and requirements to ensure we are a professional, capable body of people. We could institute apprenticeships so we have a supply of people who are more than paper MCSEs or CCNAs. I am very fortunate that I work in an enlightened company that pays more than lip service to standards and security. Management totally backs us up on secure and safe computing. No IM, no HTML mail, no user installed software. A budget for security and training. It is wonderfule. It is also the first employer in my 15 years of IT experience that follows through on these things. But I remember the pain and anguish from before. If we are going to change our industry so that we can succeed at our jobs, we need a union. Period. Dan Sichel, Network Engineer Ponderosa Telephone Company (559) 868-6367 _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html
Current thread:
- Professional Groups Daniel Sichel (Jan 12)
- Re: Professional Groups Matt Burnett (Jan 12)
- Re: Professional Groups Ron DuFresne (Jan 12)
- Re: Professional Groups Gwendolynn ferch Elydyr (Jan 12)
- Re: Professional Groups Bart . Lansing (Jan 12)
- Re: Professional Groups Ka (Jan 12)
- Re: Professional Groups Lan Guy (Jan 13)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: Professional Groups Matt Burnett (Jan 12)
- RE: Professional Groups Schmehl, Paul L (Jan 12)
- RE: Professional Groups Kenton Smith (Jan 12)
- Re: Professional Groups bart2k (Jan 13)
(Thread continues...)
- Re: Professional Groups Matt Burnett (Jan 12)