Inside Team Romney’s whale of an IT meltdown • Hacker News Board

Re: Inside Team Romney’s whale of an IT meltdown

#141

Post by smsm42 » Sat, Nov 10, 2012, 5:08 AM UTC

credo wrote: post #126

smsm42 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where Ace of Spades HQ says it's the reason for the Romney defeat? Here's their article: http://ace.mu.nu/archives/334783.php Nowhere in it it is said that Romney was defeated because of this.

The Ace of Spades post suggests that Orca was a key reason for the defeat (though it doesn't explicitly assert it). The post attacks Orca and asks "If this had worked could it have closed the gap?" Erick Erickson makes the suggestion more strongly. He points to the "Ace of Spades" post and uses it to reject the possibility that the election was a defeat for "conservatism". In http://www.redstate.com/2012/11/09/the-on…

Nowhere does it even suggest it. It asks if it could close the gap and expresses hope that it was impossible - which is not the same at all as claiming it could. Presenting this: "If this had worked could it have closed the gap? I sure hope not for my sanity's sake." as suggestion that it is a key reason for the defeat just does not hold water.

And get out to vote effort is much bigger than any application, which is only a small part of the picture. So the other claims are equally shaky.

Re: Inside Team Romney’s whale of an IT meltdown

#142

Post by chris_wot » Sat, Nov 10, 2012, 5:17 AM UTC

pyoung wrote: post #94

sliverstorm wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is sharepoint generally objectionable, or simply unsuited to certain environments/workloads/userbases?

Generally Objectionable. I think it gets packaged with windows server and exchange server for free (or nearly free) which is probably the only reason people use it.

When they do, they are extremely hard to dislodge!

Re: Inside Team Romney’s whale of an IT meltdown

#143

Post by chris_wot » Sat, Nov 10, 2012, 5:30 AM UTC

jlgreco wrote: post #133

anigbrowl wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That excuse covers just about anything. There's a big difference between micromanaging and verifying that your critical infrastructure is in place when you launch.

I was unclear. I am saying that since it is not the job of a president to micromanage, it is legitimate to criticise him for fuckups he was not directly involved with. If his job were micromanaging, then "Hey, he wasn't in the room" would excuse him of responsibility, but that is not the case. Since his job would be pretty much the greatest opposite of micromanaging I can conceive of, there can be no excuse. The fail…

Let me try:

The United States has the following federal executive departments:

* Agriculture

* Commerce

* Defense

* Education

* Energy

* Health and Human Services

* Homeland Security

* Housing and Urban Development

* Interior

* Justice

* Labor

* State Transportation

* Treasury

* Veterans Affairs

Now there is literally no way you can micromanage you way through this. Nobody, and I mean nobody can possibly single handedly do it.

However, you can delegate. Part of that is to choose honest brokers and managers who know their area well enough to ensure that their departments work well.

In this situation it is your job to delegate to the right people. If you are the President of the United States of America and you aren't able to do this with your own campaign to get elected, you must take responsibilty for your failure and accept a great deal of responsibilty for the fact you did not get elected to high office.

Harsh, but being the POTA is not a job everyone can do. I know I couldn't.

Re: Inside Team Romney’s whale of an IT meltdown

#144

Post by zachrose » Sat, Nov 10, 2012, 5:43 AM UTC

eli wrote: post #25

brudgers wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"A Web App is actually the right call." Yes. Calling it "an app" however was a bad call. From a practical standpoint, that is. From the standpoint of "an idea guy" and a "communications expert" it was of course a requirement.

What else do you call it? A "mobile website"? I don't think that's the real problem... the real problem is none of the users actually had an opportunity to use prior to it being absolutely mission critical.

"It's a website: http://orca.mittromney.com. It works on smartphones."

Re: Inside Team Romney’s whale of an IT meltdown

#145

Post by mmonoceros » Sat, Nov 10, 2012, 6:04 AM UTC

Another misstep of the Romney camp seems relevant, since a lot of the discussion so far is about project management.

In September they admitted to wholesale copying of a key Obama fundraising page, with Zac Moffat blaming the issue on "junior staff confusion":

http://www.buzzfeed.com/zekejmiller/romney-campaign-appears-...

The copy was lifted in its entirely. The similarity in the design is more subjective. (They were so similar that a lot of the discussion online speculated about a shared vendor -- which isn't the case. Quick Donate was a custom product internal to the Obama campaign.)

Romney campaign seems to have had serious problems in a lot of their internal processes when it came to tech/web. (AMERCIA)

Re: Inside Team Romney’s whale of an IT meltdown

#146

Post by jlgreco » Sat, Nov 10, 2012, 6:18 AM UTC

chris_wot wrote: post #143

jlgreco wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was unclear. I am saying that since it is not the job of a president to micromanage, it is legitimate to criticise him for fuckups he was not directly involved with. If his job were micromanaging, then "Hey, he wasn't in the room" would excuse him of responsibility, but that is not the case. Since his job would be pretty much the greatest opposite of micromanaging I can conceive of, there can be no excuse. The fail…

Let me try: The United States has the following federal executive departments: * Agriculture * Commerce * Defense * Education * Energy * Health and Human Services * Homeland Security * Housing and Urban Development * Interior * Justice * Labor * State Transportation * Treasury * Veterans Affairs Now there is literally no way you can micromanage you way through this. Nobody, and I mean nobody can possibly single hande…

Yes, that is the sentiment I was trying to convey.

Re: Inside Team Romney’s whale of an IT meltdown

#147

Post by pyre » Sat, Nov 10, 2012, 6:22 AM UTC

PakG1 wrote: post #103

When I worked for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, it was pounded into our heads all the time that there was no second chance. Everything we did would get one chance only. For that reason, we had two Technical Rehearsals. The purpose was to test both our systems and our procedures, and identify how they could be refined for the real thing. It was someone's job to actually design a huge number of expected and unexpec…

Like the IBM "Black Team":

http://www.t3y.com/tangledwebs/07/tw0706.html

Re: Inside Team Romney’s whale of an IT meltdown

#148

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Nov 10, 2012, 6:44 AM UTC

jlgreco wrote: post #109

acslater00 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would give me more pause if Mitt Romney were involved personally in this sort of a project.

If there is anything a president's job isn't , it is to micromanage.

[deleted]

Re: Inside Team Romney’s whale of an IT meltdown

#149

Post by keypusher » Sat, Nov 10, 2012, 6:48 AM UTC

acslater00 wrote: post #29

meepmorp wrote: post #9

Zero training? A single web server? No end users even touching the system till it's time for mission critical use? No frigging redirect of http->https? And it looks like, as has happened more than once in my professional life, people outside of the management structure saw possible risks and were blown off by those in charge. Even if you supported Romney, this has to give you some pause about the man's management ski…

It would give me more pause if Mitt Romney were involved personally in this sort of a project.

The CEO of any large company is usually not personally involved in the running of day to day operations. The president is not personally involved in the administration of Social Security, Medicare, the military, or any of the other multitude of services the government provides. But at the end of the day both are held responsible for the successful functioning of their organization. How can you be expected to run a country if you can't even run a campaign?

Re: Inside Team Romney’s whale of an IT meltdown

#150

Post by furyofantares » Sat, Nov 10, 2012, 6:57 AM UTC

chris_wot wrote: post #74

acslater00 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would give me more pause if Mitt Romney were involved personally in this sort of a project.

What, he didn't have any say in who he hired to make this work? The POTA doesn't actually personally work on many projects. He relies on people to get them done. If Romney couldn't get something as crucial as this right, then how the heck would he have gone running the country?

Planet of the Apes?