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0 pointsjoe_the_user10y ago0 comments

The problem is that at a certain level of government, you will have administrators who aren't technical experts and who have no interest in deferring to the opinions of technical experts.

Such folks just don't want to bother with the limitations that a secure system implies, even if such a system became much more featureful than the present ones. They want their Windows/Mac and probably want it for their work-groups.

It's not just a lack of technical know-how but a variety of psychological tendencies that stands against this. It's taken a long time for companies to develop UIs that people want to use but the existence of these "easy to UIs" is a barrier to any UI which requires even a small amount of training to use.

0 pointsjoe_the_user10y ago0 comments

The problem is that at a certain level of government, you will have administrators who aren't technical experts and who have no interest in deferring to the opinions of technical experts.

0 comments

4 comments · 2 top-level

AnimalMuppet10y ago· 2 in thread

Fine. Then those people don't get access to secure systems or information that needs to be secured. Just don't let them have any kind of job that means they need to work with information that should be secure. Let them have their Windows/Mac machine, and let them work on writing Word docs and Powerpoint about stuff that nobody cares about.

hackuser10y ago

Unforunately that's not how government (or any large institution) works. That person has enough political capital to hold onto that job, or probably they wouldn't have obtained the job in the first place. Try firing or moving them and you might find that someone powerful, whose good will you need in order to get important things done, will be unhappy with you.

joe_the_userOP10y ago

Just don't let them have any kind of job that means they need to work with information that should be secure.

No, you don't understand that "those people" are in charge of the American state already. This is what the ruling elite looks like, not geeks or technical experts - lawyers, business school grads and ideologues generally. No one else is going to tell them they don't get access ... because they are in charge.

Hillary Clinton's email server and Sarah Palin's hotmail account were both symptoms of this.

erikpukinskis10y ago

So? Hiring a UI expert to do a trivial amount of user testing is basically all that's required. You don't need to turn something into Windows to make it usable. As long as the basic activities are relatively painless, people have zero problem using an archaic system.

Order a report and make a revision. Repeat a couple times if you have to.

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