Thursday, March 8, 2007

Let It Be

Our conversation on Tuesday sparked an idea.  An idea, that in retrospect, seems so obvious and simple that there is no doubt about it.  It is an idea whose time has come.  An idea that makes one put palm to forehead in the universal gesture of "duh."

The idea is:  Employees must take over the Forest Service intranet.

No, we're not talking about a web site or a discussion forum.  We're hijacking the whole blue-corn enchilada, i.e. the sites formerly known as FSWeb.
  
Why not?Nobody is using it now anyway.   
The thing is just an ugly green filing cabinet stuffed with musty forms and directives.  Let's just put in a corner somewhere and get moving with a dynamic, user-generated network that is useful, powerful and effective.   Let this be a platform for all employees.

Let it be sandbox where we can play and learn.
Let it be laboratory where we can experiment and innovate.
Let it be a market where we can exchange ideas, services and goods.
Let it be whistle where we can blow off steam.
Let it be a soapbox where everyone's voice is heard.
Let it be...

1 comment:

Bill Williams said...

Your comment is presented a bit "tongue in check," I understand, but an insurrection is hardly needed. In fact, our needs are completely opposite.

We need the IRM/ISO group to see end-users as equal partners -- underscore equal -- in delivering an evolving intranet that provides realtime solutions, rather than telling us what (legacy) applications are appropriate for use. It's a matter of trust. The issue then becomes, "what will it take for IT to be truly responsive to the needs of end users?"