On Tue, 2003-12-02 at 21:16, Colin McQueen wrote:
ian
wrote: <snip>
When I find that a LEA tells a school that it can't have Linux servers because they don't support it and I say you don't need to, we will and then they say you can't have remote access except using a Windows only solution I get just a tad annoyed. Then after a meeting they refer me to the same clueless minion who I know doesn't understand diddle.
You see its this judgmental attitude that gets my back up.
You might have a slightly different view of it if your business and the livlihood of several people depended on it and it was personally costing you the consultancy fees the school is paying. In any case I'm an ex-RgI and trained to be judgemental ;-)
Even if they are clueless, they have a right to a viewpoint and a right to doing their job their way.
As a taxpayer I don't believe they have a right to be clueless! I also don't believe it is desirable to simply allow this type of thing to go on unchallenged - its the reason we have the mess around us in the first place. Do you think a competent RgI would take this view of a clueless teacher? Somehow I don't think so. I have absolutely no quibble with LEA people who are prepared to listen to sense and to be reasonable - most are even if it takes them 6 months to implement something simple, but quite frankly I have not a lot of patience with people who waste my time and put the school's costs up unnecessarily.
To call someone this without knowing them or their background is just plainly wrong.
Er, I have had dialogue with the person and so has a graduate techie. It was at the Headteachers request that I became involved. My point is why organise a meeting - cost of about 5 senior managers for half a day - then end up referring me to someone I had already established didn't know how to resolve the problem who I had already had communications with by E-mail and telephone? If I ran my business like that I wouldn't be in business long. Its nothing to with personalities, its about management and technological competence.
<snip>
thing to do. Its a matter of patience, eating the elephant a bite at a time and not giving up because the task seems impossible.
I agree with this. Its important to not come across as a raving evangelist or people will be scared off.
On the other hand there are times when it is necessary to stand up and be counted.
Value the work people in schools are doing with all their fears and despite that they may supporting a different system, that you may have a negative view on.
Well we install as many Windows systems as Linux ones so that isn't really an issue. My view is that we give objective advice on alternatives and value for money but in the end we will install and support what the client wants. In fact that was the entire reason for setting up the company. As a consultant I got brassed off with companies telling the schools X was impossible so they had to have Y only to find that the real reason was that the company only supplied Y. I will also fight the client's corner - in this case it was the Head who was brassed off with the LEA because they were saying things that the head had done in a previous school in a different part of the country were not possible meaning they had no experience of it.
Don't make them feel like they are just in the way and that you know best. You'll only come across as arrogant or loony.
Alternatively you can come across as wishy washy and sitting on the fence. There is an old saying. If you are hot or cold I'll swallow you up if you are luke warm I'll spit you out. Virtually all our business comes from word of mouth recommendation. I guess some of my customers think I'm an arrogant loony, but maybe they like to have the arrogant loony on their side ;-)
If open source is better people will see that in the end if its revealed to them in the right way.
The right way is different for different audiences. In this mailing list
I think a bit of plain speaking is reasonably appropriate. I wouldn't
take the same approach in some other circumstances but we are on this
list not in other circumstances. Neither would I take anything on Usenet
or mailing lists personally. Vigorous debate is healthy.
--
ian