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Peter Quinn Resigns
An anonymous reader writes "Andy Updegrove is reporting on his blog that Peter Quinn, CIO of Massachusetts and focus of the recent media feeding frenzy, has decided to step down. Quinn stressed that his departure does not signal any major changes in policy nor was he forced to resign. He did say that a large part of the decision was made by the Boston Globe's unfounded (and quickly disproven) charges."
I guess one needs a thicker skin...
"If anything can go wrong, it will." - Murphy
The government seems really committed to its legacy information systems. Someone in a position of power finally decides to do something and is penalized for it. This is a perfect example of what's wrong with the government at all levels.
I don't think there's really anything to this story in regards to anything technical. Policy, as he says, will remain relatively unchanged. The main thing is his reaction to being in the public's eye, and his actions under the pressure of unfounded allegations.
The same thing happens to all politicians and anyone in the public's eye. George W Bush sloughs off criticism about his military past. Bill Clinton was able to sidestep allegations of sexual harassment in the Paula Jones case and tackled the issue head on in the Lewinsky witchhunt. Vince Foster blew his brains own brains out.
Public scrutiny really shows the true character and intestinal fortitude of the scrutinized.
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
I'm suspecting that MicroSoft got some photos of this guy cavorting in a bathtub filled with mayonaise and a few attractive penguin prostitutes.
A few phone calls the guy resigned. Who wouldn't?
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
The Boston Globe's having a bad run lately. First that false story about Homeland Security checking up on library borrowing habits, and now this BS. If anyone should be gone, it's their editor.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Sounds like someone is getting ready for a nice, big lawsuit.
"They posted all this crap about me, it wasn't true, I had to quit, I couldn't find a job, and by the time I could, I was out of touch and not hireable... gimme $8 million".
$0.02 (CDN)
1st thought I had after reading that he wasn't forced out was him next being forced denounce OpenFormats on camera by an unseen gunman. ;)
Romney administration reviewing trips made by technology chief
By Stephen Kurkjian, Globe Staff | November 26, 2005
The Romney administration has launched a review of several out-of-state trips that its top technology officer took to conferences sponsored in part by companies who stand to benefit from a change in computer software used by the state.
Peter J. Quinn, director of the state's Informational Technology Division and its chief information officer, has traveled to 12 out-of-state conferences in the last two years, visiting Brazil, Ottawa, San Francisco, Japan, Puerto Rico, and other locations, records show. Most of the conferences were sponsored by technology and information companies.
Romney administration officials are investigating whether Quinn violated travel procedures by not obtaining written authorization for six of the trips -- to Brazil, Ottawa, San Francisco, and other cities -- since September 2004. For six other trips, he received written approval from his supervisor.
The state launched its inquiry after the Globe began asking questions about the trips earlier this week; it is being conducted by Thomas H. Trimarco, the head of Administration and Finance. Two Romney administration officials, who asked not to be identified because the inquiry was ongoing, said Trimarco will seek to determine why Quinn did not obtain written authorization for the travel and whether having trips paid for by conference sponsors would have violated the state's conflict-of-interest law.
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.
Eric Fehrnstrom, director of communications for Romney, said Wednesday that ''we have discovered there is not a complete record for all of Mr. Quinn's travels, and we are reviewing the matter," referring to a state requirement that employees obtain authorization for travel. State rules also require employees to provide a detailed estimate of the cost of travel sponsored by private firms and other outside groups.
Quinn was appointed in September 2002, before Romney won election. In an e-mail responding to questions from the Globe, Quinn said that former administration and finance secretary Eric Kriss had told him that he did not have to receive written authorization for his 2005 travel. He said Kriss had given him verbal approvals for the trips. Most of the trips for which he did not get authorization occurred this year.
Kriss, who left state government in September, did not return phone messages left at his home yesterday and Wednesday.
Quinn is at the center of a controversial decision to require all documents produced by the state's executive branch to be stored in a new, universal format, called Open Document, that would work with many brands of software and is less likely to become obsolete. The change, closely watched in the information technology business, would require modifications to software running on thousands of state computers and is widely seen as a challenge to Microsoft Corp., which makes the Microsoft Office software used to generate documents.
In the interview, Quinn said that he was in demand at the conferences because of the state's initiative to move toward ''open standards" for its computer systems, which would be able to read or use documents that are written with programs other than Office.
Quinn said he sought the legal advice of Linda M. Hamel, the lawyer for the Informational Technology Division, on the propriety of his appearing at a conference in which his travel and room were being paid for by the sponsors of the conference. He declined to provide the specifics of which trips he discussed with her or the advice she gave him.
But in general, Quinn said, he sought Hamel's opinion ''if I thought there might be an issue."
Hamel confirmed that she and Quinn had dis
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Now the accusations don't even need to stick. Simply whine enough and you will get your way and the other guy will cave. As this pattern is repeated over and over again the spine will become obsolete.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
Get out of the Kitchen.
As the old saying goes. Looks like he took it to heart. Smart too, it's never good to let the cult of personality interfere with policy. While I'm sad to see him go, I realize why he did it, and understand the need to step aside so the argument isn't about him. I'm sure he will be working from the sidelines as best he can. I wish him all the best of luck in his future endeavors.
Official Heretic from the "Church of Global Warming". Proven right thanks to whistle blowers. AGW = Flat Earth Theory
I doubt Microsoft had a lot (if anything) to do with this. Having worked in government organizations in the past, it is generally not a good idea to attempt activism, technology or otherwise, in a unilateral fashion. This is exactly what many in the government of Massachusetts are claiming Peter Quinn attempted.
Open standards are a good idea, but this guy should have worked the political aspects of his campaign for ODF a lot more carefully. He may have been long on vision, but he was short on political acumen.
Favors always come with lies.
You'll not see nothing like the mighty Quinn - Bob Dylan
Peter Quinn, CIO of Massachusetts
I never knew Massachusetts was a commercial entity...
He should just take some leave, then come back recharged and ready to weather the bulls!th from the media. He's not really doing himself a favour in resigning.
"Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn't been good to you so far
blew his brain's own brains out.
I don't see how this is news, because according to http://www.consortiuminfo.org/newsblog/blog.php?ID =1863, he retired last January.
has resigned, effective January 9, 2005.
I've stuck my foot's own foot in my mouth's own mouth.
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
There are hundreds of other technology sites out there. Sometimes Slashdot will link to a story first, sometimes last. Often it will be duped enough that it's first AND last.
People frequently get the year wrong just at the end of a calendar year. The date in question is probably 1/9/2006.
So please, STFU.
Sharing their disgrace should be Fox News reporter James Prendergast for reprinting alarmist, baseless, claims by Microsoft front organization "Americans for Technology Leadership" about OpenDocument, further speading disinformation on the whole topic.
What Peter Quinn and others in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Office of Information Technology was trying to do was set a sane long-term document strategy for a state government whose records include the oldest constitution in the world (predates the US Constitution.)
If we can't read documents that were generated by proprietary formats only a few years old how can we manage laws, deeds, and other material looking forward decades and centuries? At least with OpenDocument there will be a published freely re-implementable file format that can be widely used as time goes on.
As to MS claiming their formats are "open" they've sung that song over and over yet each time it has proven to be untrue as critical portions of their formats are consistently undocumented or legally encumbered. Heck they can't even reliably read back their own material from products a generation or two prior.
MS's real fear is that by breaking the cycle of locked-in file formats they'll have to compete on a level playing field with alternative products. The truth is it would take them a few days to come up with an OpenDocument converter, the same as they've done for dozens of competing formats.
Whoever hires Peter Quinn will be getting a fellow with considerable professional integrity. Whether his replacement shows the same level of honesty and dedication is a serious concern, particularly considering Governor (& future Presidential candidate) Mitt Romney's willingness to whore out critical appointments in return for special-interest campaign contributions.
I wonder how MS will be funneling the money this time? Will they be washing it through Republican stronghold Staples Corporation or through some other ersatz 'grass roots' astro-turfing front like Americans for Technology Leadership?
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
In a move that didn't sit well with many Boston residents, The Globe was bought by the NY Times. Editorial standards, even just on a basic proof-reading level, seem to have gone nowhere but down ever since.
Really a shame, because the Globe's Spotlight Team was (and still is, to some degree) an excellent group; they do in-depth investigative journalism, perhaps comparable in some ways to PBS's Frontline.
Also, if you're in the Boston area and interested in commentary on news stories of the day, tune in @7for Greater Boston, with Emily Rooney on WGBH (Channel 2), with repeats on 44, I think. The "Beat The Press" Friday episode is especially good- a panel of journalists talk about the news media's behavior over the last week. John Carroll(sp?) is a master at amusing introductions. For their end of the year episode (Dec 23, 2005) he did a complete synopsys of the White House/CIA agent leak in the style of "Hollywood Squares", which was hysterical...and very effective. It's currently watchable in quicktime format....look on the left side of the homepage for the link.
Please help metamoderate.
As PJ of Groklaw reported (and as the Boston Globe *retracted*)--Peter Quinn DID have verbal authorization for those trips and was cleared of all wrongdoing.
:)
:-/
I realize you didn't say otherwise, but I just thought it best to point that out, prominently, wherever this information is mentioned
After all, the first Boston Globe article was front page news. The retraction was burried deep in the middle of a section not many would see
In the end, only semolina has a thick skin.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I think that taco could do better than those globe guys, and that says a lot.
Good. An appointed official should not be deciding the only file format that citizens of the state are allowed to use when dealing with the state. The state should use whatever software the majority of their citizens use, and not try and force them to use something else. Public officials do that all the time when they choose Microsoft format. I can't acces the local county government website because it only supports IE.
Also, as PJ pointed out, the accusation that Sun Microsystem provided Quinn with the "use" of underage boys at those conferences is completely and utterly false.
IE is not a file format.
Are we not to attribute the same behavior to those promoting the exclusive use of Microsoft's file formats? Your attempt at discouraging participation by calling it "activism" and "unilateral" suggests that you simply disagree with the recommended change in behavior to adopt open standards (OpenDocument being one of them) for Massachusetts state-issued work.
Digital Citizen
This just can't be?! The BS about him in the news is just the reason for him to stay.
-=[ place
SCALE 4x has invited all .gov IT staff in California at both the state and local levels to attend their ODF Workshop. The workshop is being produced in conjunction with the OpenDocument Fellowship.
The more that sick and ugly shenanigans are brought to light, the greater the likelihood of a peaceful revolution at the ballot box.
The US political system needs an enema at pretty much all levels.
Guys like this CIO, who are trying to do the Right Thing, and meeting evil at every turn, deserve to be write-ins on ballots.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
I'd like to thank the good, brave man for all his effords - and thank the politicians for killing this! And i'd like to thank Micro$oft and their allies to show us "the truth" - politics is bad, it kills the laughter (Louis De Funès) The good thing is that we're thinking about how to archive data... The bad thing is that microsoft is pushing pseudo-patented standards into the market, with their powerfull marketting and lobbing machine, it'll work out fine for them & we'll get warped back into the dark medieval ages of a digital golden cage, where we may pay, pay, pay, pay, pay just to be able to read our data, if ms-drm permits us to read our data. Of course if you cannot access your data, you can allways try to give a call to the CIA & NSA. They have the key to your data, and they'll open it for you (as long as there are terrorist messages hidden in the content).
The UN a corrupt socialist organisation? By those standards The USA has already been converted into a neofascist state.
Romney and his administration didn't have a choice but investigate. The Nov. article says the Globe went to the administration and basically said, we've got evidence that this guy broke the rules. They could do two things - say we won't investigate it, which the Globe spins into a story about the future Presidential candidate protecting his own and playing political games, or put their high ranking finance person on the review, at which point the Globe says that Romney is investigating Quinn.
The Globe went after the story and played both angles - they were going to get a story either way. My guess is they could pick anyone in government and do the same thing. They just "happened" to chose Quinn.
Anyone know how much of the NY Times Microsoft owns?
Like M$ does not have the resources to buy more bullshit?
I think he needs to spend some time on revenge. Microsoft should be punished for this and hopefully will be. There's a clear path between the "story" and it's source and very clear malicious intent. It's called slander and whoever did it should pay. When it hit a paper, it became libel and he will be tarred with it forever.
He should just take some leave, then come back recharged and ready to weather the bulls!th from the media.
No, he's getting away because the tarring stuck. He thinks that people's false perception of his wrongdoing is creating an impediment to his policy and effectiveness in general. We have to trust the man on the spot for that call.
For all we know, he's got a really good follow up who won't be afraid of kicking M$ off every state owned desktop. Now that would be some good IT policy.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
>>ODF is a tool used by MS competitors to try to win marketshare>in the guise of OSS
The guise? Why is ODF only the guise of OSS, and not the real thing?
First a Russian minister resigned abruptly a day or two ago, saying the country is no longer free...and now this guy resigns? Is anyone else reminded of Atlas Shrugged?
Well, it wouldn't be the first time that a buyout has proved detrimental to a company's practices and reputation. However, I don't think there can be any serious doubt that this article was instigated by Microsoft, considering the background to the story.
I never thought I'd do this, but... mod parent up!
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
No, the story was not proven wrong. The original article stated that Quinn went to those conferences without filling out the official Travel Authorization Form and by not doing so he is in violation of the state's Travel Guidelines and state regulations. These regulations are in place so that state employees prove that the conferences they are about to go to are real conferences and not wine and dine junkets. The story was very slanted. It could be described as sensationalistic or yellow journalism. The story itself explains how poorly researched it was (why publish to say that he couldn't get in touch with Quinn's boss Eric Kriss rather than waiting for Thanksgiving weekend to be over and actually talking to Kriss.) but I don't think you could point out any particular incorrect fact.
The later article explained how Quinn's new boss requested that he supply the missing paperwork, that it was turned in and that it was determined that all of the conference were legitimate conferences. It didn't retract anything expressed in the original article, but filled in the information after the first story. (saying that Quinn filed the missing paperwork; Kriss said that he knew about all the conferences and had no problem with them; and all the conferences looked legit to the governor's budget chief.
I wouldn't exactly call it "buried". It was on page B1, the front of the City and Regional News section. (stories that are buried start on page B6 or so. )
Now some people will use the fact that Quinn's boss Eric Kriss says that he knew about and verbally approved all of the conferences as if the Travel Authorization paperwork wasn't necessary in the first place, or that since Quinn paid for some of the expenses out of his own pocket that the state has no reason for having any interest in the matter at all. What I don't understand of these points why people feel that Kriss had any authority to override state regulations. (Would Kriss have the authority to tell Quinn he could double park on Beacon Street if he wanted to). The out-of-pocket costs that Quinn absorbed ignore the fact that the travel and conference regulations are anti-influence-peddling regulations, not cost restrictions. The travel form (a one page form, for goodness sakes, not very burdensome for paperwork) simply asks "how much are you paying", "how much does the state need to pay", and "how much is the conference shelling out for you to be here, and are they involved in any current state contracts".
Some of the biggest influence peddling scandals in the state of Massachusetts have come from companies using phony conferences to whisk state officials to exotic locations. They have a duty to find out which conferences are legit in order to protect itself.
All his conferences were legit and I've never seen anyone claim otherwise. The official investigation found that there was no wrongdoing. Even the Boston Globe printed a retraction. Apparently his boss could give verbal authorization, or they might've found otherwise.
That some government functionary didn't fill out all their TPS reports shouldn't be page one news, anyhow. Nor should the retraction be less prominent than the story itself.
Granted, it could have been a real scandal if they weren't legit trips, but it wasn't. And that's why it's so damaging--it made him look bad even though he did nothing wrong.
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I have no proof (yet, grin) that Microsoft played dirty here, but I would be surprised if they weren't involved. The culture there is to win by any means neccessary. Play dirty, lie, cheat, sabotage. Anything goes, just win that damn contract and upsell while you're there. Customer satisfaction is only important if/when it generates revenue. I have little doubt some strings were pulled or smear was paid for.
That being said, I'm a little surprised with Mr. Quinn's descision on ODF. He always came accross as someone that was more into self-preservation than doing the right thing - a corporate "yes man" of sorts. 5 or 10 years ago he was a "Don't rock the boat" type of guy. He was a PHB at times. During a meeting he actually said to staff, myself included, "You're working hard, but you're not working smart.". Another time I was tricked into submitting an "anonymous" survey about my opinion of the IT division. LOL - he called me into his office less than 10 minutes later to "discuss" my opinions (anonymous - my ass). He was very personable, someone you wouldn't minding having a beer with, but then again you wouldn't turn your back on him either. Very nice most of the time and pretty smart, there was just a lingering feeling that he'd throw you under the bus to make himself look better if the opportunity came.
I'm surprised he didn't take to politics better. It was his strong suit back then, a natural.
The original article did not say that the trips were improper, but just that there was no paperwork and the state was investigating whether they were proper. Since it there was just an implication of wrongdoing and not an explicit statement, the second article stating that no wrongdoing was found was not a retraction. Retractions state where the original article was incorrect, and the second article had no such language. You can take the facts in the second article to mean that the implications in the first article were unfounded, but that still isn't a retraction.
I take them merely to indicate that the author got a "hot tip" on the investigation. Which turned out to be nothing. The implication of this is that every last bit of paperwork you might not have done over the entire course of your career might come under scrutiny by those who are out to get you.
The important point is to denounce the implication that he did something wrong. These reports primarily are lists of who sponsor the trips. Unfortunately, given the nature of the conferences he attended, they are meaningless lists of dozens of random tech companies. Their purpose, government transparency, is not really served by such meaningless disclosures, whatever the applicable 1985 regulations might be. Even if you feel the need to uphold the strict letter of the regulation, it's his boss, NOT Peter Quinn, who was wrong.
Your characterization of the travel authorization form as being similar to the TPS reports joke in Office Space ignores the fact that the travel regulations have a real purpose in government transparency.
In this case, as I say above, they are essentially meaningless disclosures to be promptly forgotten in some government filing cabinet. Unless someone is digging through there for something--anything--they can find to make you look bad. As for the new TPS report cover sheets, that is most likely a retronym. Which is to say, they made up a random acronym for the report when making the movie and someone later found an existing report which used that acronym. In other words, it is unlikely that the Test Procedure Specification is quite what they had in mind in making Office Space--they just picked three letters at random and happened upon that.
The number of people who would see an article on the front page and below the fold is roughly similar to the number of people who would see the same article on the City and Region news front page.
I'll give them some credit for at least trying to make good while skirting the issue of how damaging their initial report was to the poor guy. In reporting on his resignation, while they mention Peter's discomfort at the personal attention he's been getting, they didn't mention their own article on him... Unless they've revised it since I read it--I read it online.
But when your mischaracterize Kurkjian's article as badly as he mischaracterized Quinn's conference schedule, you are minimizing how damaging the events actually were. (actually your work mischaracterizes them worse, since Kurkjian had the facts right but the innuendo wrong, you don't even have the facts right.)
If mine is worse, then I have both the facts and the innuendo wrong, no? But the only thing I mean to say I will say directly: that this story was fed to them by people who wanted to lash out at Quinn. I don't think it's reasonable to deny that, because how else does one get word of, let alone print on the front page, that someone did not file all the paperwork they were meant to? I grant that the article was restrained in its characterization, but being "under investigation" certainly makes one look bad, and it turned out to be all for nothing. If anything, it was his boss who improperly told him he didn't need the papers, not Peter Quinn who did anything wrong.
Lastly, we'll just have to disagree on the importance of the trip authorizations. For all that, what good is this paper trail? Microsoft can pull strings with the politici
I've read through over half the comments so far and seen some very good and cogent points on many sides of the issue. But what I haven't seen addressed is this:
Quinn is (was) a civil servant, though a pretty high ranking department head. He worked for the State. As a civil servant you are expected to do things like, you know, show up for work. You get only so many vacation days a year. Maybe he got 20 days (I don't know for sure, but that's typical). The point is that in an environment like that you are accountable for your time. You don't show up whenever you want to. So Quinn went to three conferences per year, some far away from home, dealing at least partially with ODF and at least partially because he was an upcoming 'star' for that agenda. Each one of these conferences took several days, including travel time, so I'm guessing a week each on average. In at least SOME of the cases the conferences paid for his way. Now it looks like his supervisors approved every one of these sorties, but that clears him of wrongdoing only in a technical sense.
Unless he took vacation for every one of these conferences, he attended them on the backs of the Massachussetts taxpayers. That is a legitimate issue to discuss and talk through. Over 5% of his working time was spent attending conferences to talk about ODF, which was HIS agenda for Massachussetts.
I've been in this sort of situation (though certainly not at that level) and the deal was always this: If I got paid by the conference, I had to take vacation, period, even if it were a speech for a measly $100. In some cases I was able to negotiate a "win-win" deal. If the conference paid my way (paid my expenses), but did NOT pay me for my presentations, then I could use my organization's time IF it were seen as pertinent to my position, or, frankly, brought glory to the institution. (e.g.: If I were a keynote speaker and my boss could brag to the board that I 'keynoted the blah blah conference') Even in these cases it ain't easy because it tends to cause dissent in the ranks. I once went to Sweden--at entirely my own expense--to receive an IT award and people griped that I was allowed to go.
I would think, however, that attending three conferences per year in any fashion like this would be really pushing it. I would think that a supervisor who was actually paying attention here would have said, "Hey, Quinn. You've been attending all these conferences, and, yes, I've given my permission so far on all of them, but it seems like every few weeks you are gone somewhere else and nowhere to be found. Now I find out you're pushing your OSD idea. We've talked about that and lets keep talking, but you know: this is not a done deal here and there are lots of issues to deal with before it is. Not everybody likes it and it's a problem when people see you pushing this on the outside. So I think that if you want to go to any more conferences, take vacation to do it. That way we avoid any sort of conflict of interest here where the taxpayer is footing the bill for your agenda. Deal?"
I think that pretty well would have taken care of the issue. And as has been pointed out elsewhere, in a dog-eat-dog environment, when you get into trouble, it's the little issues which normally slide that they'll get you on. You made a long distance call on a state telephone for a personal reason. You didn't fill out a silly form, that sort of thing.
So a pox on all the houses that deserve it here, including yet another journalist who thinks a B.A. in Communications makes him into a perceptive and worldly-wise person, but Quinn is not without some cuplability here. In hindsight, a little foresight might have prevented the entire affair.
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
Interesting. FWIW, they're true, although I have no means to prove that here, even if I were logged in. I was more curious as to whether it would prompt you to reciprocate.
So you are close to the story, then?
Duh, but the webpage that only opens correctly with IE is a file.
I should have been more liberal with the
's. Plus I left out the last line, which should have been "Forest ... trees."
You must be joking.
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.