During a town hall meeting for State
Department workers last month, an employee named Jim Finkle asked Hilary Clinton a very important question: "Can you please let the
staff use an alternative Web browser called Firefox?" The room erupted in
cheers. Finkle explained that he'd previously worked at the National Geospatial
Intelligence Agency, where everyone enjoyed Firefox. "So I don't
understand why State can't use it," he said. "It's a much safer
program."You
don't have to know Jim Finkle or anyone else at the State Department to
recognize their pain. Millions of workers around the world are in the same
straits: They've heard about the joys of Firefox, the wonders of Google Docs,
or any number of other great programs or Web sites that might improve how they
work. Indeed, they use these apps at home all the time, and they love them. But
at work they're stymied by the IT department, that class of interoffice Brahmins
that decides, ridiculously and capriciously, how people should work.
