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Peter J. Quinn Investigated for Travel Omissions
tadelste writes to tell us O'Reilly is reporting that a recent story in the Boston News about Peter J. Quinn is nothing more than a desperate attempt to slant public opinion in the Massachusetts OpenDocument frenzy. While we have documents showing Microsoft's lobbyists paying for big trips for the former House Majority Leader and his family to go to England and Scotland, Mr. Quinn seems to be getting the spotlight for incomplete travel records. From the article in question: "On most of the trips, Quinn said, his travel and other expenses were paid for by the sponsors of the conferences. On two of the trips -- to Tucson and Washington, D.C. -- Quinn paid his own way, according to state records and an interview with Quinn."
Is Peter J. Quinn?
The link is already getting slow so here's the info:
u item.2231afa58be831c14db4a11030468a0c/?pageID=itdu tilities&L=1&sid=Aitd&U=quinn_bio_publicsite
Peter Quinn has served as Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts since September of 2002 and Director of the Commonwealth's Information Technology Division (ITD). Mr. Quinn is also Founding Chair of the Government Open Code Collaborative (GOCC). As ITD Director and CIO, under the Executive Office for Administration and Finance, Mr. Quinn is responsible for setting information technology standards in the Commonwealth. Mr. Quinn came to public service following a successful career in private sector IT, most recently as the CIO for Boston Financial Data Services
http://www.mass.gov/portal/site/massgovportal/men
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
Sorry, but this is the IT publshing company, not our friend Bill O'Idiot of Fox News.
http://weblogs.oreilly.com/
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
It's MS dragging the name of a government official through the mud just because he is choosing open standards over MS.
/. is for.
It's kinda what
The road to tyranny has always been paved with claims of necessity.
At worst, if Quinn got free vacations at OSS conferences paid by OSS corporations, it will show that at least OSS corporations are fighting proprietary corporations like Microsoft in an arena where victories are won every day: buying political decisions. The OSS revolution is a practical one, not an ideological one (though some ideologues like Stallman can be useful). Maybe once the tiny sector of government that is its technology formats and software is open and transparent, we'll have some luck fixing the political part. Until then, I remember the fortune cookie "it's best not to know how laws and sausages are made".
--
make install -not war
It's news for nerds because it's about free software in the government - Linux, Openoffice.org, Firefox. It's also sad because Microsoft has to stoop to dirty tricks and can't accept it's loss like men.
looks like scuttlemonkey got his xbox 360
Unfortunately that is the way of most politicians these days. The need to constantly raise compaign funds has made most of them little more than paid whores. Most citizens are left with voting for "their" paid whore and against the other guy's.
I'm huge Open Source, linux, anti-Microsoft (in the "I-wish-they-would-cut-out-the-monopolistic-abuse- crap" sense), but not at the cost of ethics.
Then I suggest you read both articles carefully, the boston globe one doesn't even list any violations that make sense in reality-land. For example:
Even though a galaxy of computer companies are listed as sponsors of many of the conferences, Quinn did not list any of them on his authorization forms or the business relationships any of them have with the Commonwealth.
If you've ever been to a tech conference you know that the list of sponsors is immense, it would not make sense to list a single company on that list because it is the conference itself (not its sponsors) who decide to pay for your visit when you're a guest. The globe article even points out earlier in the story that the guy's legal advisor didn't know exactly what he needed to do with regards to listing who paid for the trip - and later in the story it notes that when his expenses were paid by a single company he did list the name of the company.
This was a political thing.. some reporter thinks they're smearing somebody... they waited for a long weekend to even report it when he can't respond... this is editorial abuse, heads should be rolling... and not his.
Except, as it has been pointed out elsewhere, it's not obvious he actually broke the law.
He went to a couple of trade shows on his own dime, and maybe didn't file every little slip of paperwork required. It happens. Was it a major ethics violation? No, it doesn't appear to be.
Far from the two felony convictions Microsoft has recieved. If you, personally, recieved two felony convictions, you'd be disbarred from even bidding on projects with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Why is Microsoft seemingly the sole exception to just about every state's "felons cannot provide services to the state" statutes?
Next time you go 5 MPH over the speed limit, I expect you to duly walk into the nearest police station and demand they write you a citation. After all, the law is the law.
We are talking about lazy documentation on what probably will amount to a couple of thousand dollars by someone who probably makes well over 100k/year. Would you honestly risk a high paying job, one you have invested a great deal of time and effort in, over a couple free trips to CONFERENCES?
If this were real fraud, he would have crossed every t and dotted every i to avoid attention. No, this looks like a case of a really busy, dedicated individual who was a bit careless with some mundane, tedious paperwork.
There are probably millions of government employees who never have this problem because all they do is paperwork and never risk anything based on principles of what is best for the public.
It would be much more interesting to trace the paper-trail for how this article came to existence. . .
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
That's unreasonable. It's not even enough money to warrant a Class C Misdemeanor. How do you know he didn't have exemptions. Most states follow the model paper work redution act. Mass is usually among the states that follow the model acts. The O'Reilly article says he that his boss was contacted and said he had permission. RTFA.
I met Peter Quinn at FISl6.0. He certainly did not impress me as any kind a politician, much less a corrupt politician. He seemed like a pretty regular guy.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
George Radwanski resigned as Privacy Commissioner of Canada over dubious expense claims. Unfortunately, an investigation did back up the charges. I say unfortunately because Radwanski was an effective champion of our privacy rights.
All of this is to say that Peter Quinn may be a good person doing good things but, there is a line that may have been crossed... as PJ points out in her article: It is too bad that 3 time Pulitzer winner Stephen Kurkjian didn't wait until he had the full story before publishing his article.
Given what I know about working for Mass, I strongly suspect that's the case.
<begin anecdote>Back in my last job, I did some consulting for the MBTA. There was no problem with traveling within the state on project business. However, traveling out of the state on project business was a big deal, requiring several levels of approval. At one point we needed to fly to Colorado to conduct some testing - it would have cost several $million to test locally, and several $thousand to test in CO. I think it took something like 2 months for the approval to come through. Since the testing wasn't too time-critical, we just waited for the T to give us approval.
<end anecdote>Given my experience working for the state, and my experience going to conferences, I don't find it hard to believe that Mr. Quinn may have been running against conference registration deadlines, hotel room deadlines, and airfare deadlines - I suspect that he followed proper procedures when he could, but if there was a time crunch (maybe it took too long for a gov't bean counter to approve the first of 12 forms), he may have just asked his boss (and council as TFA noted) for verbal approval.
Frankly, as a Mass taxpayer, I'm happy that state workers are going to conferences. Of course if it was a golfing junket, it would be a different matter. But (IMNSHO) technical people need to go to conferences to expose themselves to news ideas, to meet contacts, and, yes, to schmooze with vendors.
We complain about not having good candidates to vote for, but what sane person is going to run for office in this sleazy poliical climate?
Yes, Mass. was proposing an open document format. That would make him a good choice as a keynote speaker at OSS conferences. And they break this on a weekend? This stinks like yesterday's diapers.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
This story is a caricature of a purposefully leaked, politically motivated hatchet job that -- to the glee of the "unnamed sources" who served it up -- got past the Thanksgiving rag tag staff and onto Page One.
It's unclear what this very public investigation about is even about. Misuse of taxpayer dollars? Quinn paid *his own way* to attend two of these technical conferences and was an invited expenses-paid speaker for others. Cozy relationships with corporate sponsors? The article notes that his expenses-paid conferences were sponsored by a "galaxy of computer companies" -- e.g. the free market. Not filling out the proper paperwork? Since when is improper paperwork Page One material? (Maybe Quinn never got the memo about those TPS reports).
So what is Peter J. Quinn guilty of? Being a political liability for Governor and Presidential Hopeful Mitt Romney. Having one of your employees piss off the bosses of the world's richest software company is no way to kick off your 2008 campaign fundraising drive.
"I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things." -R.P.Feynma
What are you talking about ? Accessibility comes with third party add-ons. No Microsoft code.
Slashdot anagrams to "Sad Sloth"
Nobody lists all the fsckin' companies that sponsor a conference when they are being paid by the conference. If I got funded by a tv station, I would list the tv station but not all of its sponsors (advertisers). What you say makes no sense and is not how the real world operates.
The guy didn't fsck up at all. The Boston Globe was trying to raise muck where there wasn't any muck to be found. They published this crap and now they are being ridiculed.
We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are.
-- Anais Nin
"to add the kind of accessibility features Microsoft has taken years to develop?"
Excuse me sir, you assumptions are showing.
Microsoft did not develop the products (such as JAWS) that add accessibility features to MS Office.
If anything, Microsoft hindered development of such products.
Wow... with those kind of discounts available, maybe Massachusetts should have built their huge highway tunnel in Colorado, too.
If the state law says you have to list who paid for the trip, and you list the conference, then where is the problem? If you go to E3 as a speaker, EA did not pay for your trip, the E3 conference did. If you are an Olympic athelete, the Olympic committeee pays for your trip, not Coke.
When you ask for reimbursement, you document why and where you went, the costs, mileage (if applicable), and the applicable code. Often the agency will reimburse you, and then the event will reimburse the agency.
I really doubt that this is anything but The Globe making stuff up on this one.
... bit if they're determined to screw honest people over this badly, send him to Canada. We like the cut of his jib.
The Boston Globe method was to 1) ask what the disclosure rules are because they didn't know, and then 2) print an article on the front page that says the Governor's administration has launched an inquiry into possible ethics violation by Quinn. Note that the big pile of #2 the Globe put on page one came before they knew what the rules are, or without giving Quinn a chance to respond because they couldn't reach him on THANKSGIVING DAY.
If you can't smell this smear job, you should see a doctor and let him count the holes in your head. It's not about what "side" anyone is on, it's about ethics, and the Boston Globe has demonstrated that they have none.
3 things about computers: they're alive, they're self-aware, and they hate your guts.
Another Microsoft backed lobbying effort was the fake grass roots movement "Campaign for Creativity", which tried to convince the European Parliament to introduce software patents in Europe, by pretending to represent "artists, designers, writers, photographers, software developers, musicians, engineers, inventors". In reality it was just a site put up by the lobbying firm Campbell Gentry, and financed by companies like Microsoft and SAP.
This (failed) lobbying effort has how been nominated as one of the contenders for the "Worst EU Lobbying Award" 2005.
The "winner" will be selected by an open Internet poll. If you want to donate a mouse-click to the fight against software patents and the companies that try to introduce them by corrupting the political system, you can go to the site and vote online.
The award is organized by a number of watchdog groups that are working for cleaner and more transparent methods in politics, so although the award as such sounds a bit humorous, the underlying issues are quite serious.
Christian Engström, Former Member of the European Parliament 2009-2014 for The Pirate Party, Sweden
See Groklaw's comments at:
1 63314567
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20051126
Nothing more.
The Globe is owned by the New York Times, which is Sultzberger being used by Bush and cronies to sell the Iraq War. Now we have the Globe being used by Microsoft to attack the Open Document Format decision in Massachusetts.
Once a sellout, always a sellout.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
I'm the CTO of Altamente, mentioned in the article. We invited Peter to the conference in Puerto Rico simply because we felt that the government of Puerto Rico needed to hear what Massachusetts was doing with regard to IT. How simple is that? We don't do any business in/with Mass.
It was a great opportunity for one government to share with another some of the challanges and difficulties of budgeting information technology and one possible solution that Peter's office had proposed. Since we're an open source company, it makes perfect sense that we like what he was doing with OpenDocument.
It's just a stupid witch hunt. His trip to Brazil, Puerto Rico and most of the far flung conferences were paid by people who wanted to hear what he had to say, what he was doing, and how they could do the same. As many people wanted to listen to Dr. Edgar David Villanueva from Peru, lots of people want to hear what Peter Quinn has to say as well. Same deal.
Toddlers are the stormtroopers of the Lord of Entropy.
I sent the following to the Boston Globe Editor:
Microsoft's campaign against industry standards has sunk to new lows. Stephen Kurkjian's Nov 26th muck-raking article on Massachusetts CIO Peter Quinn paints Quinn's personal dedication and industry outreach as potential scandal and corruption. Is a $543 trip to a conference on digital governance by the Commonwealth's CIO really worthy of a front-page article?
Kurkjian writes "a galaxy of computer companies are listed as sponsors of many of the conferences", but then notes that Quinn "did not list any of them on his authorization forms or the business relationships any of them have with the Commonwealth." It was the conference organizers, not sponsors, who paid for Quinn's trips. Should Quinn also be required to list every conference's advertisers and their business relationships with the Commonwealth? That would certainly be a galaxy of paperwork!
Quinn is doing his job. Moving to the OpenDocument format is the equivalent of trying to convert the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to standardized printer paper. He should be praised for his dedication to the Commonwealth in the face of an 800lb industry gorilla, not dragged through the mud for attending industry conferences.
http://plausible.coop
The issue here is not one of Mr. Quinn being on the take. I can assure you he is not. In fact, Mr. Quinn believes very seriously in the effort that he has undertaken, and will fight it to the end.
The real issue here is the antiquated regulations regarding travel in the Commonwealth. I know, because I worked there 20 years ago, and the regulations were antiquated then, and have never been amended to take into account today's business environment.
Basically, the regs state that all employees that travel out of state have to have the permission of their supervisor, and once they have that, they have to pay for the travel themselves, unless they are on a speaking engagement. Even then, they cannot accept payment for the travel if there is a potential that the sponsor would be doing business with the state. These rules were primarily created to make it difficult to ask for approval. And if you did pay for the travel yourself, you were sure to be notified by the Legislature the next year that this obviously discretionary spending would be removed from your budget -- good luck ever getting the State to pay for any travel.
Mr. Quinn had signed approval of at least 5 trips. The signoff was from the former Secretary of Administration and Finance, who recently left government. It was this Secretary that was leading the fight against Microsoft, and Mr. Quinn was fulfilling this Secretary's wishes. Why he didn't get approval for all 12 trips -- who knows? But what does it really matter? All of the trips were for speaking engagements at conferences where there was no clear single sponsor. That being the case, why shouldn't Mr. Quinn allow the sponsor to pay for the travel? It saves money for the taxpayers, and provides exposure to what other entities are doing to implement Open Source.
It's obvious to me that this was a hack job by lobbyists -- something that Microsoft made clear during an open hearing with Mr. Quinn regarding the State's open source philosophy that they were very willing to undertake.