Slashdot Mirror
Barrier to Web 2.0 — IT Departments
jcatcw writes "Wikis, social networks, and other Web 2.0 technologies are finding resistance inside companies from the very people who should be rolling them out: the IT staff. The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) in London had to bypass IT to get Web 2.0 technologies to end users. Both Morgan Stanley and Pfizer are rolling out Web 2.0 projects, but it took some grass roots organizing to get there."
I know it sucks when you are understaffed, underfunded, etc. Everyone has been there. But did you read the parent? Third-party review of the IT department revealed that they were, in fact, lazy and incompetent. If that's anyone's "fault" it's the recruiter who hired those bozos. But the fact remains that they were a bunch of self-important dicks who realized all too late that IT guys are not exactly a scarce commodity.
Now, I say "please" and "thank you" to my DBAs and server jockeys all the time. I take them out to lunch, I sent three of them to DEFCON this year (and I glossed over some, shall we say, questionable items on their expense reports), I do everything I can to A) make them happy and B) make them successful. By definition, when they are successful, I am successful. But among the many words they can say to me, including "Fuck off" and "You're out of your mind," "No" and "I can't do that" are not among them.