"Brazil" in EU

I have seen many times the incredible "Brazil" movie

I have laughed bitterly many times as few people understand the depth of the movie better than those actually working or having worked in bureaucracies ... I mean those at least that are not completely embedded into their functioning, and are still able to laugh at it!

The thing that ticked me off into writing this was a folder I received by internal snail mail few weeks ago ...

There is every so often a carton folder of about 400-500 grams that arrives on my desk with a cover page called "Circulation Rapide" (which is kind of self explanatory ...) and the respective signature sheet so that there is a proof you read it (very few actually do)

This is how we get to access the information the hierarchy believes is important enough to be shared with the rest of staffers.

The funny thing about it is that much of its contents are actually e-mails that are printed out, approved for circulation by the hierarchy with a great multitude of stamps and signatures on them, that are photocopied a great number of times, to be then compiled into folders for each sector/ unit etc. These folders are then circulated manually from one office to the other by a clerk pushing around corridors a pretty large trolley packed with folders and mail ...

The hall of fame of these documents was a photocopy (with 4-5 stamps on it) of an e-mail that was talking of a new website that was just launched !! That was brought to me by "Circulation Rapide" 2 weeks later by internal snail mail ...

This is an image that in 2008 makes me really feel weird...

This is what happens when large administrations (for example the European Commission) keep in simultaneous use all the Information management systems it has ever used since the 60ies !

We have the completely manual paper only system "signatories, clerks and trolleys, paper archives" of the 60ies - 70ies in parallel and perfect duplication the the later "shared drive and e-mail" system of the 80ies - 90ies in parallel and (almost) perfect duplication with "web based applications and tools"of late 90ies early 2000 ... (however badly designed these are ...)

Another sticking example of how "efficient" this is ... is archives
Most of the time paper archives are the only ones officially kept. The funny thing again is that a large part of these paper archives are just printed e-mails or printed versions of documents that exist in shared drives. Then again even if you keep (most don't) mailboxes and documents from people changing posts or leaving the Commission, they are pretty useless as there is no way to search through these to find anything (googledesktop for example is forbidden)

The result of this is a very inefficient information system that has many repercussions both internally (and externally I guess ...)

One of the reasons for this situation I believe, is the dramatic gap in comprehension and practice that exists among various generations of staffers or even middle an senior management and the lack of incentives or vision to actually break off from these deep seated and mechanically reproduced practices ...

Trying to bring in web 2.o in such a context is a very tough task but I believe worth pursuing ...

When you have tasted to the ease and power of the tools that exist today, you can only bitterly laugh or become really pissed with the situation described above...

All these vendors and gurus that evangelized the paperless administration since late 80ies and got their pockets full for it ... should really see the paper-mess we got in...

[There was 1 Comment By Michael
Michael Said ...
That's incredible! I didn't really appreciate that stuff as crazy as this actually went on. Suddenly I realise just how fortunate I am to work for a relatively far-sighted non-profit.
Posted on 29 August 2008 11:33]

OpenSource vs Microsoft and others in EU Institutions

This is a rather large debate and I will not attempt to cover it not even partially ...

I know The Commission and the Parliament took a clear stance towards supporting OpenSource (some references needed will be added here) ...

But how is OpenSource implemented in practice?

Actually for the first time in IT history of the E. Commission, Open Source Software such as Blogs, Forums and Wikis are officially part of the IT arsenal at the disposal of the "adventurous".

The so called "Flexible Platforms" including these tools were launched at the end of last year to the relief of some at least...

So you have the standard PhP BB forum tool
example : http://forums.ec.europa.eu/debateeurope/index.php

Wordpress for Blogging (that's great! but then again it is by default stripped off of the interesting modules... but still)
http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/

Wiki is still being experimented with. Actually they are using a paid version of wiki called Confluence Wiki (by a company named Atlassian).
The Issue is that for the moment wiki implementations are only accessible by Internal Staffers (problem currently being tackled)

[ I can't figure out why they picked one of the only Wiki platforms you have to pay to use but there must be a reason. One i see at least is that it has a powerful content indexing tool that allow you to kind of build an online library of indexed thus searchable documents]

Oh yes ! and I forgot ... there is also the "Interactive Policy Making" tool otherwise called IPM
When i first heard there was something like that I really felt awed!! The European Commission is into Interactive Policy making !!

I was a bit annoyed to find out that all there was behind this very heavy wording was a rather badly implemented and hard to use online survey tool (like survey monkey but less potent and user friendly)
http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/

Despite the fact that these developments seem to be coming a tad late (I mean Wikis and Blogs have been around for 7-8 years?) they still constitute a MAJOR step forward for the EU Institutions.
These "Innovative" tools are combined with other interesting OpenSource initiatives such as
http://www.osor.eu/
[Have a look also at http://www.semic.eu/semic/]

In any case, albeit slowly the Commission seems to be moving to the right direction ...

...or is it??

The real potent OSS applications (like Drupal and other OSS CMS & Knowledge management systems) that could leverage a real change in the way the EC and other institutions function
... are not considered at all ...

And I believe there is a good reason for it ...

The real key for making the EU institutions knowledge driven or turned into a learning organisation (better information sharing for better policies, harvesting the massive knowledge and content user have there siting on their hard drives etc etc)
... is the Intranet of the EU institutions... and there ... surprise!!

The new system to be Implemented is called "Corporate Portal" and is in fact ... Microsoft Sharepoint ... customised to some extent to fit the needs of Staffers...

In combination with the exclusive use of Microsoft Office, Windows XP and Internet Explorer on Staffers PCs (When I say exclusive ... I mean for example that Installing Firefox is forbidden!) ... we can say that the lock-in is complete !!

So the EC decides to make its exclusive provider the company that it slammed down with the highest ever fine amounting to a hefty 899m euro ... I guess for a reason ...

In comparison to this piece of market the "Flexible Platforms" seem like a tiny figue leaf to be able to keep saying "we support OSS"

So is it just about "pretending" we support OSS while giving it all to Microsoft ?
(and others before ... like EMC ... more in an other post someday)

It is tempting, but I wouldn't go that far...
I believe there are genuine supporters of OSS inside the Commission working with whatever manoeuvre margins they have vs those in favour of MS and others.

That said ... even MS Sharepoint looks like 10 years ahead of what is currently used inside most of the EC Institutions...

Yes... it is really that bad...

[There was 1 comment by Vassilis
he said...

Well said! However, I have the impression that the OSS support of the EC is really a misunderstanding. I think that the EC supports it "loosely", meaning that there is no legal/formal requirement or restriction. Maybe a legal person can enlighten us on this, it would be really useful. That being said, I personally believe that the problem is not whether the EC should use OS vs proprietary software. Let's not forget that Google - for example - is such a proprietary platform and many innovations are "closed"/proprietary. The problem is one of mentality and culture. There is an abundance of free tools available today that the EC could use to improve its own internal workings and its services to citizens. The problem usually lies in badly run organizations with no real centrally managed strategy and of course inadequate familiarity of the employees/b-eurocrats with the tools available. In other words, if you don't know that something exists, you can't be blamed if you don't use it.

Posted on 12 August 2008 12:19]

Thank God we are secure!

One of the most amazing security features implemented in most EU institutions is strong security on web access...

The only issue is ...

That EU Institutions' officials are actually requested to enter user name and password every time they feel like going on the web !! I can very easily understand why a third party would have to go through heavy security to access our Intranet or other internal services accessing it from the web / outside ... But I cant really figure out why Staffers would have to go through strong security to get out on the web !!

It is like if you needed to show your badge when leaving your office!!

Is it a measure to protect the open web and the regular people out there from the "dangerous" EU staffers??

boo!

Making Web2.0 really look like Web0.0

YouTube the EU way!!

YouTube became a great success because it empowered people to instantly publish, view, share, rate comment, and save videos from across the globe. A kid with a video enabled mobile phone witnessing an important event could instantly let the world know about it. A professor wanting to share his lectures, a conference sharing the presentations, creative individuals communicating their views in self-interviews ...
All these led us to the richness of the YouTube we know today ...

The funny thing about b-eurocracy trying to look modern is that it just doesn't get it!!
There is a dedicated EU-Channel on YouTube ... http://www.youtube.com/eutube

So far so Good ! I would even say ... that's Great!! It sounds like a 10year leap considering the general ICT / web mentality of the Institution (more in another post maybe) ...

The issue is of course that they let a highly innovative service and idea, be run by classic b-eurocrats, following I guess b-eurocratic procedures and instruction notes (term to be further explained in a glossary of some kind maybe in the future).

The result is that for any EU service to upload a video of anything on the EU tube, not only do you have to go through a relatively complex administrative procedure but they also need to provide the relevant service (I presume it is lodged in either DG Education and Culture or DG Communication) a High definition video in professional format so that they can .... down sample it to the ridiculously low resolution YouTube needs to play anything...

The bottom line is that you need to hire a professional Video Recording / TV Team to video anything you might find interesting to share on EUTube...

It is clear that the average EU service does not have a 3-10.000 Euro Camcorder, and even if it dit it wouldn't know what to do with it ... So you either forget about it (most of the cases I guess) or you hire expensive crews and equipment to produce the video quality the service needs!

In short it defies the very purpose of the YouTube idea in the first place !

You don't get rid of the middle man, you can't publish instantly, you can't share videos you took or think are of interest and so on ...

This is probably why you usually find much more on EU anything on the non-EU YouTube

I agree that you probably need a team to organise the contents on the EUTube ... but for the moment it just seems to be a trndy online way to disseminate TV Clippings of EU stuff and interviews ...

While there is some credit in doing that ... they completely missed the point and a great opportunity to open up to much richer and more valuable user generated content ...

bah!

[There was 1 comment:

William said...

It's the same evrywhere. Classic comment from a senior British official responsible for IT in Whitehall: "This Web 2.0 stuff is all very well for the likes of you. BUT i think the general public want us to get Web 1.0 right before we get on to all that."Yes, that's right. We all want bureacrats to spend years doing clunky, centralised, herd-to-use expensive web sites before contemplating easy to use, interactive powerful cheap ones...

13 August 2008 08:52]

let it there b-light !

There are things that need to be said and discussed on how b-eurocracy functions and how this impacts on our lives ...

This is not a whistle-blowing site (it can of course be if need be...) nor a scandal investigation page...

Just a place to say the funny and not so funny things we see happening in or by european bureaucracy ... discuss them and share ideas on what to do about that...

Of course I will try to moderate if need be but in no case will I take responsibility neither credit for what others say here ...

Lets get this ball rolling !!