In which time and tech march on

Everyone at the DJ is going into conniptions over having to update to the latest version of Word. Given that we were using the 2011 version, I would say it’s about time to upgrade. After all, all our freelancers are living in 2018. So are my iPad and mini, for when I work at home. The thing is, no matter how forward-looking a company might be, and the DJ is very much that, very into keeping our brand relevant in the digital age, it doesn’t mean that their IT department isn’t mostly populated with dinosaurs who want to keep everything as is because, at the moment, it all mostly works. Upgrade to a version of Word that’s only a few years old? To them, anything short of just announced as obsolete is still beta. I can understand that. While an IT department’s job seems to be to provide the technical infrastructure for a company to run its business, it’s secret real job is to keep users from bugging them. Old software that runs perfectly fine is way better for that than newer software where the buttons are some place they weren’t before. To say that all IT people hate users is to overstate things. Hate is reserved for human-to-human interactions. IT people do not consider users to be human. To hate them would be to elevate them beyond their station.

This is not to say that I have bad relations with my IT department. Far from it. To be honest, I’m mostly on their side. Since I’ve actually spent a number of years managing a systems group, I know how it is. I especially understand change management. It’s difficult. Managing not changing is a lot easier. But if change is in aid of improvement, it has to be done.

Meanwhile, we keep changing things at tournaments. The latest thing is partial obligations in PF. It took me a while to get my head around partial obligations. Obviously it’s a lot easier for coaches simply to dump judges into the pool and for tab rooms simply to fish them out. I also originally (and erroneously) thought the math wasn’t as favorable with partials as with full obligations. But as Kaz pointed out, on top of all that, partial obligations in LD were so much better at allowing teams to do their prefs at an optimal level, since they could factor in if someone were there for 1 round or 6 rounds. Obviously, with PF not having MJP, the issue is slightly different, but there are still strikes. It would be nice to know that The Parent From Hell is only judging 2 rounds. Why waste a strike, when The Idiot Coach from North South Dogpatch is in for 6?

The thing is, we are slowly introducing these changes. Just as we started e-ballots in LD and then spread out to PF (and even speech), we started partial obs in LD and Policy. That allows at least some coaches to get used to them, and it puts them out into the atmosphere. Applying things after that to PF is just natural. While, as the Vast Coachean Army knows, I am a strong supporter of Keeping PF Accessible, that doesn’t mean it has to run on index cards.

This morning we swept out the TBAs at the Tiggers. There weren’t too many, as people know enough to put in names that they can change, but it does usually eliminate a bit of ballast. The remaining slots then go to people with names. And the tournament is one step closer to reality.