SOUND OFF!


MOZILLA FOLLOW-UP
- John Angelico
OS/2 SIG Convener
Melbourne PC User Group, Inc.
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
August 19, 2003


THE DANCING ELEPHANT
- Derrick Price
February 14, 2003


OS/2 UPDATE PROGRAM

    RE: Your proposed "OS/2 Update Program" (January Editorial)

    The eComStation Maintenance Tool project, does pretty much what you are asking for (for EcomStation, of course). It is not, yet, finished, but it is getting there quickly, thanks to the efforts of Chuck McKinnis.

- Doug Bissett
Retired from IBM Canada Ltd.
Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada
December 16, 2002
   


MICROSOFT AND MASSACHUSETTS
- Derrick Price
December 12, 2002


AN ENCOUNTER WITH IBM
- Derrick Price
August 8, 2002


MANAGEMENT VS. WORKERS

    Regarding your July Editorial, "Managing from the Bottom-Up," one of the main obstacles to implementing a cooperative, bottom-up workplace is that there is an adversarial cultural relationship between top-level management and the typical middle- and lower-level workers. Workers tend to look with suspicion and resentment at an elite class of top brass who fire workers on a whim, in order to please Wall Street or to line their pockets with another layer of wealth (will they ever get enough??). Management looks down with disdain at their "underlings" who are obviously "losers" for not being able to "game the system" and grab a cushy top-level position.

    As long as this adversarial relationship exists, neither management nor workers will be effective, productive assets. Your model works when there is cooperation, mutual respect, and open communication. People who live in totally different parts of the city, drive totally different automobiles, and associate with totally different social environments find it difficult to relate and communicate across that gap. Social structures such as religions, clubs, and volunteer organizations often fail to bridge that gap because they themselves adopt the demographic-isolation model in order to focus on select subsets of society.

- Tom Nadeau
OS/2 Headquarters
July 5, 2002

    EDITOR's NOTE: You are right; the fundamental precept of teamwork is cooperation. Regardless of the size and shape of the organization involved, politics too often raises its ugly head. It seems that only in times of crisis do people pull together. Its a shame we have to wait for an emergency to get anything done. But if we can put aside our pety differences and work towards a common objective with faith in both management and worker alike, we can move mountains.

   


AN OPEN LETTER TO SAM PALMISANO, PRESIDENT & CEO OF IBM

Annual revenues, $bn
 19962001Growth
Cisco4.122.3444%
EMC2.35.9157%
Microsoft8.725.3191%
Oracle4.211.0162%
Sun7.018.3161%

IBM products49.346.3             


COMMENTS PLEASE

Thank you for your input!