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Preserving Data....A Major Quality Headache
An article in The Washington Post's "Outlook" section on August 23rd explores the problems individuals and organizations face when they use rapidly-changing technology to store digital data for posterity. According to the Post, the "state of the art" digital media used for data storage may not stay "state of the art" for long. Future generations may find retreiving digital data will require a warehouse full of carefully-preserved equipment that can retrieve digital data recorded today. Moreover, it is likely that specially-designed electronic equipment will be needed to copy the data onto whatever computer media are "state-of-the-art" 10-50 years from now - just as special equipment must be designed today to copy 50-year-old audio from early audio media (magnetic tape, wire, and surface grooves.) And every type of recording media - from 78 rpm records to digital video disk - has a different time-to-obsolescence and a different storage lifetime.
The Post article was written by John Carlin, who is the Archivist of the United States. In the article, Dr. Carlin details what the National Archives and other federal agencies are doing to find a common solution for long-term storage of digital records. The article appears on page C3.
Federal Appeals Court Says 'No' to Census Sampling
Front page articles and editorial page analyses in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and other newspapers this week examined the ramifications of the recent decision by a special Federal appeals court that found the Census Bureau's sampling plans for the 2000 Census are illegal. The three judge panel found the Bureau's sampling plans violated the provisions of the 1957 Census Act, but did not rule on the constitutionality of sampling. According to the August 26th issue of The New York Times, the Clinton Administration immediately made an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is not expected to hear the case until next year. In the meantime, the Administration will be fighting for funding to include sampling in the census, while Republicans in Congress will try to block appropriations for sampling.
In a related article on August 27th, New York Times staff reporter Michael M. Weinstein challenged the assumptions behind the 2000 census sampling plans. The theoretical discussions of 2000 sampling often ignore the variability inherent in field data collection. For example, how well will mediocre census interviewers in inner cities interview people who don't want to be counted, compared to eager volunteers in middle class suburbs where 90% or more of the households mail back their census questionnaires? How many of those who avoided filling out a census questionnaire will later avoid a follow-up interview? How well would sampling estimate the true population of small areas - census blocks and tracts - which will be used by the political parties to draw up new congressional districts in 3 years? The article appears on page D2.
CIOs Gain Status
On August 25th, a Wall Street Journal article discussed the growing importance of chief information officers (CIOs) concomitant with the growing importance of corporate information and information technology. According to executive search firms, more chief information officers are reporting directly to chief executive officers, rather than to lower-level executives. More CIOs are being included on management committees.
The change should not be surprising. Slightly more than 20% of American corporations are involved in manufacturing. Six of the 30 corporations whose stock prices are used to compute the Dow Jones Industrial Average don't manufacture products (seven if you count McDonalds). Moreover, in the information era the products many corporations produce are various types of information.
Information technology is becoming important even in industrial corporations. With customers and suppliers spread out all over the world, timely and accurate information is essential.
The article concludes by recommending that if corporate IT specialists want to advance they must stop being just IT specialists. A growing number of technology specialists are pursuing MBAs. Others are taking on assignments outside technical operations. And with the pervasiveness of information and the decentralization of corporate computing, nontechnical managers are rotating through IT jobs as part of their grooming for top management, just as a few years ago they would have gone through marketing or finance to assume a senior management job. The article was written by Hal Lancaster and appears on page B1.
Crits Nix Ad Trix
An article by New York Times film critic Janet Maslin takes issue with the careless and inaccurate ads for films concocted by film studio advertising departments. According to Ms. Maslin, what a critic actually writes about the film versus what film ads (typically published as full-page newspaper advertisments in the entertainment section) quote from the critic's review is often inaccurate to the point of embarrassment.
According to Ms. Maslin, print-media movie ads for high-budget films are more ruthless and reckless than ever. Phrases are yanked from reviews out of context. Words are picked out of paragraphs and strung together. A critic's careless phrase is eagerly pounced on and tuned into a glowing endorsement. On the other hand, low-budget films don't profit much from reviewers' comments, no matter how well-made the film. Low-budget films - especially foreign films - don't have the advertising budget and the box office to take advantage of critics' raves.
Ms. Maslin warns her readers to avoid ads with statements....like this....strung together....full of holes. Unfortunately, The New York Times hasn't taken Ms. Maslin's advice and continues to take the money from film studios and run the ads. The article appeared on August 23rd on page 24 of the "Arts & Leisure" section.
'Best' Places to Work - More Dumb Lists?
What are the "best" places to work in the United States? If you believe The Wall Street Journal, one of them - the SAS Institute, in Cary, North Carolina - is close to the top of the list.
According to the Journal, the lists of "best to work" places (compiled by "Fortune," "Computerworld," and "Working Mother" magazines) have some drawbacks. Organizations are omitted from the lists by the list makers for various reasons - size, because they are government agencies, and lack of interest by a corporation. To compile employee satisfaction lists, corporate employees are usually surveyed at random. The company is asked to supply data about subjects like employee turnover and responsiveness to employee problems.
Like many other lists, the "best places to work" lists are subject to data manipulation by companies trying to look good on paper. It's obvious that corporate management can influence employee emotions about the company by announcing good news (e.g., pay raises and bonuses, improved health insurance benefits, a better child-care program) at the time an employee survey is being taken. The selection of employees to be surveyed may not really be random. And the survey my be biased by other variables, like the quality of life in the community where a corporation is located. The report was written by Sue Shellenbarger and appeared on August 26th, on page B1.