Archive: February 1998

Desautels second-guesses pioneers

O2/01/1998–Auditor General Denis Desautels criticized government managed IT projects for not meeting clients’ needs on time and on budget. Desautels said

project managers failed to track time and project costs and didn’t expect to be held up to the same performance standards they demanded from their contractors.

Government Web site developers responded to the attack saying that often their projects are covering new territory with no benchmarks to rely on. The Enhanced Framework for the Management of IT projects as a tool the government is using to move towards better performance.

Pathfinder drives down school roads in B.C.

02/01/1998–The British Columbia Ministry of Education signed a $3 million deal with Pathfinder Learning Systems Corp. to upgrade the computer-managed learning software being used in classrooms province-wide.

The Web-browser based software that develops, delivers and administers courses was to help teachers tailor programs to students with special needs, said then manager of learning resources and business relations at B.C. Ministry of Education.

Four years later, at the 2002 Can>Win conference, Bill Gates voiced his disappointment in the way technology has been used in education. He called the technology’s track record in education an almost complete failure.

Shine starts to come off Internet

02/09/1998–Cambridge, MA-based Forrester Research Inc. report predicts a move away from mass Internet product releases.

Marsha Scharf, at the time director of NetMerchant, the e-commerce division of Grey Interactive Canada said she saw the future of the Net as a business medium.

Canada’s acceptance of e-commerce was criticized and predictions made that Canadians would lag behind the US in shopping online.

Scharf said part of the reason e-commerce was struggling in Canada was because of banks’ reluctance to pursue it. She said Canadian financial institutions, including credit card companies, were actually trying to halt online shopping activity.

Getting Canadians to spend their money online has continued to be a struggle. An Ipsos Reid Corp. poll showed that over the 2002 holiday period the amount we spent online actually dropped. There are still big problems with getting new consumers online, the survey showed. J.C. Williams Group Lmtd. retail consultant Andrew Cooper says its largely because Canadian businesses ha

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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