
White House calls Dvorak's report "a lie" - jgrahamc
http://gigaom.com/2009/08/12/dvorak-raises-doubts-about-us-cio-vivek-kundra/
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riffic
John C. Dvorak has been on my list of "journalists who not to take totally
seriously" for a long time.

~~~
socratees
I just posted this on the other thread. It is in the University of Maryland
system, it is not "University of Maryland". "University of Maryland University
College" is not "University of Maryland".

~~~
leviathant
And look_lookatme posted the following nugget as a reply to a post similar to
yours. Quoting verbatim:

From <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Of_Maryland>

"However, in 1997 the Maryland General Assembly passed legislation allowing
the University of Maryland, College Park to be known simply as the University
of Maryland, recognizing the campus' role as the flagship institution of the
University System of Maryland."

No one of thinks "oh one of those Maryland universities with different
faculties and different quality of education" when they hear University of
Maryland. They think of College Park.

It may be splitting hairs, but we shouldn't even be having this conversation,
as it should be clear on the bio page.

~~~
marylander
Again, your information from Wikipedia is not a reliable source. Maryland
Annotated Code, Title 12 of the Education Article, 12-101(b)7 informs that the
definition of the University of Maryland includes all the colleges and
universities as the University System of Maryland. And, you are making
assumptions that everyone knows that University of Maryland implies College
Park. It doesn't. As well as the fact that the University of Maryland,
University College is locating directly on the College Park Campus in College
Park, Maryland. As well as the fact that the University of Maryland College
Park campus includes courses that are similiar in content at UMUC. If you
doubt that this is the case, I would suggest you ask UMD-College Park to
present their 2001 - 2009 Graduate School course listings for their software
engineering Master's degree and compare it with UMUC's software engineering
degree. You will find similiar courses between the two. Yes, you are splitting
hairs and doesn't help your argument at all.

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bilbo0s
This is gonna get ugly quick.

By even responding to the report, instead of relying on its network of
bloggers, the White House has just unleashed every mainstream political
journalist in the country on this guy's history. Now everything will be
examined, Creostar, the DC web sites, how a guy with no budget management
experience is chosen to over see billions in government contracts. I hope, now
that they have gone on record calling the report a lie, that none of it turns
out to be true.

I'm reminded of the young lady, Mary Carol Turano, who was in charge of
security at Boston's airport before 9-11. Although she was reassigned right
away and the administration was able to hush a lot of that up by waving the
flag and screaming patriotism. Or that 24 year old kid that was given the job
of re-establishing Iraq's financial markets after the invasion. And cooly
handed control of a US$13 billion budget. (Article by Matt Taibbi at
<http://thirdworldtraveler.com/Iraq/War_Profiteers_Iraq.html>).

What is this guys budget?

You can bet that guys like Taibbi are going to be all over this.

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spolsky
Jeez, you guys. Dvorak is just promoting his podcast, "No Agenda." If you've
never listened to it, it's the most bizarre combination of kooky conspiracy
theories from former MTV VJ Adam Curry, mostly of the "9-11 never actually
happened" variety, and typical right-wing radio yammering about how Obama is
selling the country down the tubes. I get the feeling neither of them really
believes a thing they're saying (they refer to themselves as "crankpot" (Adam)
and "buzzkill" (Dvorak)) but they have hit upon a formula that attracts a lot
of listeners so they're running with it.

~~~
ahoyhere
Dvorak is, and has always been, the Rush Limbaugh of tech.

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cookiecaper
I'm struggling to put together why we even need a "CIO of the United States".
Shouldn't all of these things be managed by the relevant department's
professional IT staff, not pointless bureaucrats? If they're trying to
coordinate an IT strategy between the departments ... didn't they learn
anything from DHS? Adding more layers doesn't make anything any simpler, just
creates more neglect, more waste, worse policies, and slower response times.

If they were serious about streamlining IT, or anything else in government,
they'd focus on paring down to a manageable size, not creating new bureaus and
departments to oversee the old bureaus and departments.

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look_lookatme
Why go through Om Malik on this? Why not contact Dvorak directly? Why not use
that awesome, expensive whitehouse.gov to interact with us directly? Why say
Dvorak is lying? Do you honestly thing he is fabricating things or really
doesn't believe what he has written?

Ugh. So many failures of communication at so many levels with this shitshow.

~~~
msie
Why satisfy/dignify Dvorak's need for attention with a direct response? What
should they do when the next person makes a claim? And the next? And the next?
Why don't they have a direct line with Lou Dobbs or Glenn Beck?

~~~
look_lookatme
What's so difficult about having a PR person contact a blogger who is getting
significant play on a story he wrote? Just contact him, clarify the situation.
If he is reasonable, he or she will write an update and we move on.

I don't care about who Dvorak is, or his history, or "satisfy"-ing his need
for attention. I'm looking at this from a broader perspective: is this
administration as in touch with the minute by minute news cycle as they claim
to be? Are they able to recognize a story as it grows from one blog post to
thousands of retweets and facebook messages? Do they know how to handle that
kind of brushfire exposure?

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teilo
John C. Dvorak vs. the White House spin doctors. Sit back and watch the mud
slingers and the muck rakers do battle, and just have fun, because it doesn't
matter who wins.

~~~
tvon
Are you high?

~~~
teilo
No, actually, I'm quite serious. Dvorak is a hack. Has been a long time. But
the White House retort is worth about the same. A big battle for what,
exactly? Dvorak won't even put a scratch in Kundra's reputation. And the White
House, for their part, will put whatever blah-blah spin on it they wish, just
like they always do. It's PR management, and you are kidding yourself if you
think it is anything else.

In other words: A whole lot of to-do about absolutely nothing, that doesn't
matter in the slightest.

