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Canadians Decide To Force More People To Use Big, Slow, Annoying Computer System
from the fallacy-of-sunk-costs dept
We've had plenty of reports of bungled government computing projects, that always seem over-budget, slow, difficult to use and rarely do the job they're supposed to do. There was the system for the (irony alert) Federal Technology Service that took 15 steps to save a document and made people cry "hourly." Then, of course, there was the famed FBI computing system that was tremendously over-budget and useless at fighting terrorism, which was eventually scrapped. It appears that up in Canada, they have their own incredibly over-budget government computing system, but they seem pretty determined not to have to scrap it. Instead, even though the system is described as "slow, clumsy and difficult to use" they're now going to make it mandatory for government agencies to use. On the positive side, part of the reason that the system is having trouble is that the security is apparently somewhat advanced (at least according to the article). However, when the system is so cumbersome and annoying to use (no matter how good the security is), all you're doing is begging people to find workarounds. Forcing uptake by mandating usage by departments won't change that -- it will just make things more annoying, and the workarounds even more questionable. It's great that the system is supposedly quite secure, but in making it slow and annoying, you're actually decreasing the security by ensuring people look for alternatives. Instead of fretting about the below expected "take up rates," and thinking up ways to push those rates higher, shouldn't they be looking at why no one likes to use the system? Even worse, by mandating that everyone use the system, it pretty much guarantees that things won't get any better, because there will be no incentive to actually improve the system or to create a better, more efficient and more useful system instead.
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maybe govement should stick to paper systems
or get a third party involved that knows computer security and ease of use.
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Payolla rulez
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So - virus or no, security or no - nothing will get done.... lol
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Then it checks what version of your browser you have. Seems they have finally added Firefox 1.0.6. Seems no one is aware of Firefox 2.0.0.1 - I suppose by the time Firefox3 comes out, Firefox2 will be 'supported'. Shouldn't websites be browser independent?
You may also get a warning about needing to have the correct version of Java installed. Wonderful. Like that is not going to confuse your average user.
While you try to get to the page you want, various warning will come up, about security, this and that. One page that may come up is the Conditions of Use page. Your choices: I Agree and I Disagree. Then if I want to access the My Account page at CRA, I have to re-enter my password. Finally, I am the page I want to be.
Seesh, with my bank I all have to do is enter my userid and password and away we go.
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Easy fix for them
boxes for VPN access, and setup SecureLinux as
developed by the NSA.
Its all free, and it all works right now.
No rocket science, no extreme feat of engineering.
It just friggin works.
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Re: Easy fix for them
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Government systems versus Private
Government wastes money, has no incentive to innovate or ensure that the product/service is competitive in terms of ease of use, cost, or overall quality.
Now compare that to the private sector. They have reasons to innovate, be competitve in terms of price, service, and quality.
This is the problem with government run programs/services. They're not forced to compete with anything or anyone, they're almost always over budget because there's no real incentive to keep costs in check (they just will keep dipping into the taxpayer trough) and since they have no competition (government is a true monopoly) they have no reason to innovate or make sure their product/service is of high quality.
And they don't care if you dont' like the system, they're not interested in their "customers", and they use force to get people to use a product/service rather than letting people select the best choice based on quality, cost, etc.
That's government for you.
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the government that governs best...
this sounds like a brilliant move for canadian government to ensure that they are one of the best governments around.
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It really is a pain...
The Canadian government is in over its head on this one and doesn't want to admit it made another costly mistake. It's to the point right now that we can prove that we can provide cheaper rates by almost 50% in some cases but '"it's been built so you will go"
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Writing Specs
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Doctrine of Ministerial Responsibility
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Re: Easy fix for them
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