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Government

Poor, Poor FBI

About a year ago, the FBI annouced they had this little problem: the agency built a software system, called the Virtual Case File, that never saw the light of day. You see, the software designers never asked the users what they actually did need.
Written by Michael Krigsman, Contributor

About a year ago, the FBI annouced they had this little problem: the agency built a software system, called the Virtual Case File, that never saw the light of day. You see, the software designers never asked the users what they actually did need. So, the FBI spent $170M developing a major system that didn’t serve a useful function and was also obsolete by the time it was completed.

Well, like any good government agency, when confronted with the sad facts, they took bold and decisive steps to move forward. What did they do, you wonder? They canned the whole thing and started over.

Well, fast forward a year and we learn that, once again, the ever-intrepid FBI is marching down the path of cutting edge technology: email. Or the lack of it. Apparently, the FBI doesn’t have enough funding to provide all its agents their own email address. Sure, that makes sense. After all, you can’t have a bunch of FBI agents using Gmail or Yahoo Mail, which isn’t secure.

Makes you wonder what great technology projects the FBI will cook up next. 

And with this story, the Deck Chairs blog is officially inaugurated…. 

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