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Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 15:09:22 -0500 (EST)
To: Bethany Soule <Bethany.Soule &AElig spl.org>
cc: improvetheworld &AElig umich.edu
From: Daniel Reeves <dreeves &AElig umich.edu>
Subject: Re: BCIS playing hard to get [and 2 posting tips!]
Status: RO

This is how our _government_ is disimproving the world, technology being
merely the tool.  I'm sure the situation without information technology
would be no less a time sink almost designed to thwart all but those with
PhDs in law and no full time job, except that a lot more trees would die
in the process.

You've reminded me of a PJ O'Rourke quote:
  It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts
  of money through inefficiency and sloth.  Enormous effort and
  elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.

So yeah, maybe it is worse with information technology than it was before,
but only because the government is _trying_ to make it worse and
technology is an enabler.  What I get from this is a sense of how
backward/twisted is the mindset of government officials wrt immigration
policy and the Rest of the World in general.


Meta-topic:
 You've also reminded me of 2 tips I had for everyone about
improvetheworld posts:
 1. trim the fat
 2. paste in the meat

Ie, (and just saw Bethany's follow-up so she's already figured this out)
assume the email will get turned to plain text and trim it down
to something manageable.  I'll try to follow this as well.  And it's not a
big deal of course, just to make the archives more navigable.  Like at
least trim it to something that someone who happened to be super
interested in the topic would want to read every word of.

And speaking of navigable archives, tip number 2. Trixie's last post
reminded me of this, but most of us are guilty of not doing this:  paste
in an excerpt, if not the whole article, rather than just the URL.  For
example, Trixie pointed us to a new york times article (a good one) and
those go away after some weeks (available only to paying subscribers).
So it would be very nice to snag the full text for the improvetheworld
archives. But feel free to just paste a URL if you're in a hurry.  Others
often paste excerpts in their responses anyway.

Speaking of the archives, they are kept auto-updated at
 http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves/improvetheworld/archives.txt
except it's currently completely unreadable until i come up with some way
to htmlify it.  Volunteers solicited.  In the meantime it could still be
useful for grepping for specific quotes or snippets.

Danny

ps, as always, get on or off improvetheworld here:
 http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves/improvetheworld

--- \/   FROM Bethany Soule AT 05.01.04 10:51 (Today)   \/ ---

> A way that technology is NOT improving our world. I attached the whole
> email conversation for those of you who like context with your impotent
> anger.
>
> Enjoy.
>
> >Another piece of information that you might find helpful if not
> unbelievable for new >immigrants requesting an appointment with the
> Bureau of Citizenship and
> >Immigration Services.
>
> >To get an appointment with this agency applicants must go online
> through a link >called Infopass.  Appointments are only available for
> two weeks in advance and >the appointment system can only take 104
> (maybe 140) appointments a day.  So >every day during a brief opening
> of the  service (could be 1pm or 3pm, no one
> >can say what time the appointment service will be available) people
> can go
> >online and make the appointment.  ONce the magic number of 104 (or
> 140)
> >appointments is reached then the site closes down for the day.  There
> is no
> >message on the website alerting the user as to how  the Infopass
> process works.  >There is no other way to get an appointment with this
> agency except through this >appointment service.  Anyway, I hope this
> helps anyone else who encounters
> >this request from patrons.
>
> Bethany Soule
> Community Technology Education Specialist
> Literacy*Americorps
> Seattle Public Library
> 206.386.4649
> bethany.soule &AElig spl.org

-- 
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves  - -  google://"Daniel Reeves"

It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts
of money through inefficiency and sloth.  Enormous effort and
elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.
  -- P.J. O'Rourke