Slate has a great piece about the crippling stasis of corporate IT culture here. One of the things that I really value about George Mason University, is my freedom to use a Mac, to use Firefox, and to use Google Calendar. The contrast with the State department under Secretary Clinton as described in the Slate piece couldn’t be starker:
During a town hall meeting for State Department workers last month, an employee named Jim Finkle asked Hillary Clinton a very important question: “Can you please let the staff use an alternative Web browser called Firefox?” The room erupted in cheers. Finkle explained that he’d previously worked at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, where everyone enjoyed Firefox. “So I don’t understand why State can’t use it,” he said. “It’s a much safer program.”
Discoverers and Discoveries 