Wednesday, March 26, 2003

A New Test for Porn in Libraries!. Eleven Computers Drowned in MP3 Witch Hunt "The IT department of Celemtech today destroyed eleven computers during a witch hunt for illegal files, mainly MP3s, on employee computer systems. A giant tub of sea water was wheeled around, and suspicious computers were dumped in. If the computer floated, then it was considered possessed by MP3s. If it sunk, then it was considered pure and returned to the employees. Head of the IT Bill Stoughton explained, 'We know that MP3s are lighter than air, hence they should float on the water. The same applies to pornographic files as well.' Stoughton was heartened by the results of today's dowsings. 'It appears that our educational e-mails about the dangers of MP3s are working. Every computer sank today,' he said with a smile." [BBspot, via Furdlog: Frank Field's Weblog] Oh, and don't forget to get your free cup holder, too! [via MetaFilter] [The Shifted Librarian] comment [] 6:44:50 PM     Creating change. From Dave Pollard's excellent new blog, How to Save the World, comes a piece of advice that could be helpful for people who want to effect change in just about any sphere of activity. It also hints at the challenge inherent in such an agenda. [...] Change Management is all about getting people to do different things, or things differently. In business, the guru of the moment on this subject is John Kotter. In his book Leading Change he describes the eight steps to getting people to do different things or things differently, and they are irrefutable: Establish a sense of urgency Form a powerful guiding coalition Create a vision Communicate the vision Empower others to act on the vision Plan for and create short-term wins Consolidate improvements  Institutionalize the change The underlying principle here is that, in business as in real life, you don't bring about sustained, meaningful change by edict. You need to persuade, enthuse, and engage people in sufficient numbers to change behaviours, laws or processes. If you want to do this in your business, buy Kotter's book, since that's what it's focused on. But the same preconditions apply to political, economic, artistic, scientific, spiritual or moral change. Whether the change agent is a preacher or a politician or a philosopher or a post-modernist, the process is the same. [...] [Seb's Open Research] comment [] 6:32:21 PM

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