Re: Call centre operators fear anti-offshore U.S. laws (June 27)
It is interesting to note that while the U.S. does not want their call centre business to go offshore, it is okay
for provinces like British Columbia to have all their Provincial Medical Plan administration farmed out to an American company. There are major concerns with privacy that, to the best of my knowledge, the B.C. Provincial government has not addressed. The reason for outsourcing to the U.S. is because it costs less than doing it in Canada. You may wish to thoroughly investigate this.
I find your publication very informative….keep up the good work.
Dale Henning
Social Development Canada
Systems Implementation & Technical Support
Editor’s Note: We actually have investigated the issue you’re talking about. For those who may have missed it, please see: “”B.C. outsourcing plan sparks privacy fears”” from earlier this year.
Re: You want to get these parties started right? (June 25)
I have to say after reading your recent article on how political parties use available technology that I believe they just don’t get it at all.
Being a technophile, I went online looking for answers about platforms and positions, and as you noted, found plenty of stuff that was pretty much static “”e-brochures.”” Only the Green party had anything remotely resembling interaction, with an opt-in for their e-mail updates — which ended up sending me a whole lot of empty e-mails for my trouble. Next time I won’t bother — if a candidate doesn’t have their Web site listed on their campaign signs, I won’t even waste my online time looking for a PDF documenting their party platform.
Needless to say, I have come out of this election with a strong impression that the political parties in this country are totally out of touch with today’s world, especially since I come from a rural area, and most of the farmers out where I live know more about using technology in their business than the politicos I’ve seen this time around.
Maybe we should fire all the politicians and put farmers in their place: not only would we get a government that is in touch with the real modern world, but the farm sector that feeds us would get a needed cash injection in the form of political salaries which are currently going to waste in a lot of cases!
Leah K. Murray
Senior Consultant, R&D
Apotex, Inc.
Re: IT safety report warns of major meltdown within five years (June 22)
If a meltdown is probable within five years then action needs to be taken to both reduce the probability of such an event, reduce the scale of the event and to mitigate the damage. The creation of PSEPC was a major step forward to recognize and prepare for any eventuality.
The Internet itself is robust due to its inherently dispersed architecture, but much work needs to be done to ensure faster response and action when an incident occurs. Each layer of the IT infrastructure from the public level to the individual business system is exposed, but many solid protections are already in place.
What is crucial is to have an ever faster response capability to reduce the length and severity of those incidents that do occur.
Dara OhUiginn
President
Almada Ventures Inc.
Ottawa
Re: IT safety report warns of major meltdown within five years (June 22)
That’s funny — wasn’t there recently a discussion in ITBusiness.ca about “”software engineers”” and MCSE’s? Licensed engineers are legally accountable for their actions — clearly, IT personnel (including MCSE’s) are not.
There are good reasons for restricting the use of the title “”Engineer””, just as there are for “”Doctor””. I am a certified first-aider, but I would never consider passing myself off as a doctor. Important message– don’t call yourself an engineer when you’re not.
Trevor J. Armstrong, P.Eng.
Re: The IT temp (May 27)
Your colleague Shane Schick has learned what the learned Gerald M. Weinberg documented over a quarter of a century ago in The Psychology Of Computer Programming: “”If a programmer is indispensable, get rid of him as quickly as possible.””
Christopher Greaves
Letters to the editor must include the writer’s name and company name along with an e-mail address or other contact information. All letters become the property of ITBusiness.ca. Editors reserve the right to edit submissions for length and content.
