Martin Levins
David Black (black@apple.com)
David was involved in the setup of the Western Academy, Beijing
He does a workshop on deployment and management, with a view to replacing an increasingly unwieldy technical management with people and process management and consultation.
Notes the impact on existing windows guys where the monoculture won't work anymore
His favourite quote: "learn to love the bomb" à la Kubrick
Is the pace of change a technical problem?
He builds an historial relationship to phones: operators do complex tasks, concierge-like. Then dialup, user has more power, but also responsibility.Think of the conversations when switchboards were changing to user dial: "what if they dial the wrong number?"
We all got used to it, and everyone used it more often: autonomy. The "Carterphone" routes radio to phone: ATT says no, but overriden by government.
ATT breakup was more than a financial monopoly breakup - it made access to the wires easier hence fax machines and answering machines were invented.
He compares data entry centers controlled by mainframes, eventually replacing the humans with automation
Do we need to have different lessons for different phones?
Suggests we change our focus:
| Concentrate on | Rather than |
|---|---|
| Network | Client |
| Recovery | Prevention |
| Online services | Software |
| Policy & process | Technology |
| Monitoring | Management |
Hence the importance of Acceptable Use Policies / Protocols / Guidelines
Should we make users responsible for data?
User acceptance process; checklist to show that machine works as advertised?
Grant IT immunity from "experiments"
Should we look at core competencies of users?
Policy trumps technical solutions
Futureproof by deploying
| Web based solutions | protects against changes to devices |
| Standards based | protection against ephemera |
| Philosophically multi platform as a business model | can mean open source as well |
| Open Source | but be careful |
He suggests:
set a machine to show squid logs? or Coburg college idea of randomly showing users' screens via Apple Remote Desktop to a large screen in a public area
Control who is accessing via portals, WPA2 etc
is being accessed: Content filters
net bandwidth monitors
A tool such as Web Helpdesk, can alert you to trends in hard disc failure for example
random laptop "surveys" (not sure that I agree here)
Should we outsource network management?
IT people were trained to build railways (reliable, one track, strict, single purpose), but the world is working more on a 4wd extreme approach. They will crash, but we can recover, if we prepare.
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