When in doubt, just make the policy really complicated
We pay for a bizillion cell phones and pdas because we say we want people to be available for emergency communications. Let’s assume we have useful definitions of “emergency communication” and of those roles which require that type of response.
This practice has caused many people to carry around two phones (or pdas): their personal and their work devices. This seems like a waste and wouldn’t it be easier if everyone could just have one device? So, it was proposed a while back that we simply give people who fit the criteria we’ve assumed were outlined above a monthly allowance toward their personal device bill. A committee was formed and a policy drafted, but the policy is terribly complicated with lists of supported devices, purchase rates, allowance plans, blah blah blah. Basically, it’s a policy that will require monthly revision as every carrier continually updates its offerings.
Essentially, someone had a great idea and then the committee took over. So we’re working now on making it much simpler. It’s amazing how hard this is to communicate. People keep wanting a list of supported devices and refresh cycles and I keep refusing to go there. It’s not about a particular device, it’s about compliance with our mail service and carrier accessibility–neither of which are particularly hard. We can just say: here’s the deal: Dude, we want to be able to call you 24/7, so here’s $50 a month toward whatever device you want that will make you available immediately 24/7. Good luck. 🙂
Bendy said:
May 06, 08 at 7:07 am>>We can just say: here’s the deal: Dude, we want to be able to call you 24/7, so >>here’s $50 a month toward whatever device you want that will make you >>available immediately 24/7.
What’s good about this approach is that it follows the client -> protocol -> server model. It’s a lot easier to make the backend available to a variety of clients than it is to control the specs of all the clients. In this case, I guess the backend means establishing a canonical directory to find people’s contact info.
admin said:
May 06, 08 at 4:24 pmExactly. We can’t control the clients, nor do we really want to. The policy team kept wanting to list who could get a PDA versus who was stuck with a cell phone, and I kept noting that if we’re giving people an allowance, then even if it’s for a cell phone, they might want to use it toward a PDA, and why would this be bad? ?? We want people to use technology more, not less…