Computer rogues

Paul McNamara, Network World's most insightful Scottish writer, recently brought up the topic of computer "rogues." These are the folks in an organization who don't follow the straight-and-narrow path laid out for them by MIS. These folks are the Mac users, the Linux explorers and anyone who runs something other than the official software our help desk has the manuals for. Paul has been exploring how organizations deal with these rogues.

It's not necessarily major sabotage that makes a rogue. In any organization, which has adopted the Microsoft Office suite, you'll find a poor beleaguered Word Perfect user nervously huddled in some corner with the telltale blue/green/red keyboard template perched nearby.

At best, MIS managers treat these rogues with contempt, relegating them into the same category of people as used toner cartridge salesmen. At worst, MIS will go out of its way to harass and abuse them, actively working to make their lives hard.

One organization I visited earlier this year wanted to move from a switched LAN to a routed LAN. Shutting down AppleTalk routing was just one of the company's top 10 reasons for wanting to do make this change. By shutting down AppleTalk the company could stop its few Macintosh users from using the high-speed printers in the printer room. I am not making this up.

Why do MIS managers treat these rogues this way? Paul has his theory ... I have mine. I think it's a combination of fear, power and control, with different proportions depending on the person. Really, I had thought that "compliance" was a word used mostly in prisons, not in the corporate IT infrastructure. If you've got a good reason for why MIS is giving these people such a hard time send me an e-mail and let me know.

Joel Snyder is a senior partner with Opus One, a consulting firm in Tucson, Arizona. He spends most of his time on the road helping people build larger, faster, better, and more reliable networks. His professional travels have taken him from San Francisco to St. Petersburg, where he always carries his trusty Macintosh and modem, neither of which have cute names. He is also a member of the Network World Test Alliance and writes extensively on networking topics. Reach him at joel.snyder@opus1.com.

Policing pollution
Network World, 04/19/99

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