Government to workers: shut up and get back to work
Date:
2002-07-02 03:57:46
From:
paulrobichaux
I don't think that the nefarious hand of Microsoft has anything to do with this; most agencies come down like a load of bricks on contractors or employees who dare to speak publically. I base this experience on my own tenure as a contractor to NASA and the US Navy, as well as living in Huntsville, which could legitimately be called 'The Military-Industrial Complex City."
Brief example #1: as a freshly hired programmer working on support software for space shuttle payloads, I posted to comp.lang.ada. My post, all 5 lines of it, pointed out that NASA was considering using Ada for some space station software. 30 minutes later, I got a phone call from an associate administrator at NASA HQ telling me, in essence, to keep my yap shut.
Brief example #2: I forwarded a post from sci.space.shuttle to comp.risks. That earned me a heated conference call with the information security managers at the Marshall and Kennedy Space Flight Centers. I can only imagine what it got Ken Hollis, the NASA employee who posted to sci.space.shuttle in the first place :)
I could go on, but I'm sure you get the point. Many government managers do not suffer their employees to make public comments or presentations-- however innocuous-- about their agencies' business. I suspect that is the cause of the effect Tim reports.
