Friday, November 25, 2005

Tinker! When a picture says a 1,000 words.

(Click images for larger view.)
Tinker Bell at on a weather vein.

Town is filled with talk about "tinkering" concerning the plans put forth by Mark Roosevelt, Pgh Public School's superintendent.

Tinker with this. Tinker with that. See which way the wind blows.

Frankly, I've had it to here with this tinkering mentality, so might say outgoing school board member, Alex Mathews. He does not want the board to "tinker with" the plan. Give it a stright up or down vote.

Humm. The wind generally does not blow straight UP or DOWN. It blows all around.

I sorta like the idea that of a straight up or down vote by the school board. I like the idea as there should NOT be any small-minded tinkering at the board table. However, the tinkering needs to occur elsewhere.

Like this tinkerbell topping -- the tinkering needs to be clearly visible for all to see. There is why she sits at the top of the building.

The tinkering should occur in online too. The school district can set up a help-desk with a job-ticketing system. This is nothing but a bug tracking program and/or versioning software.

Otherwise, we are left with a lot of hot air and no way to gather -- but only scatter.

Tinker Bell has a magic wand. Roosevelt might need such a stick if he proceeds as he's been going. The data isn't visible. The tinkering and changes are not evolving in public. The communications is still top down -- and only top down. I'd suggest a radical change -- a magic flashlight instead of a wand. Put the dealings and documentation out in the open. Put the content online. Open the source code. Make a visible change log.

Warning: If the change log documentation does not become visible, -- Superintendent Roosevelt might need more than a magic wand. He'll need Star Wars Light Sabers and a team of Jedi Masters to reinforce the PR firm. The PR spin won't cut it in the long haul.
Pay attention!

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