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Could someone change the misleading headline ? Wired came up with the phrase based upon "foster collaboration among telecommunications researchers, University

by ig1 17y ago

Could someone change the misleading headline ? Wired came up with the phrase based upon "foster collaboration among telecommunications researchers, University of Maryland faculty members and other academic institutions to improve secure networking and telecommunications and boost information assurance". That could describe a wide range of things, saying that they're only developing a mailing list and wiki is highly misleading and probably libellous. Yes. We all know consultants are expensive, but this isn't reddit, and having exaggerated articles that try to push peoples buttons is simply just trolling.

philk 17y ago
I might be a little too cynical here but a government agency spending millions on something that is functionally equivalent to a mailing list and a wiki is not an unrealistic scenario.
- kgrin 17y ago
  Maybe, but the article doesn't actually present any evidence that that's what's going on.
  - philk 17y ago
    I agree completely and it's a poorly written article. However, it's been my experience that far too often in government/big business you wind up with a project that costs millions of dollars that could have been pulled off by two hackers, ~200K and an infinite supply of caffeine.
  - invisible 17y ago
    It could be claimed the vagueness of the contract leads the writer to think the company will do it on the cheap (if they don't allow scope creep). Maybe it will cost the company 1 million somehow, but ultimately it shouldn't cost even that.
raffi 17y ago
Agreed. This is link-bait at its best. I've seen situations where a contractor worked in this capacity. Usually it also included hosting conferences, setting up a resource where a lot of information is organized and available, generating reports, and putting up a mailing list/wiki. How much they're doing for $20 million? I don't know. But it's definitely more than a mailing list and a wiki.
bmelton 17y ago
Usually you can find the specifics of these sorts of contracts on FBO.gov, but upon a closer inspection of the article, the $20MM win to Booz was a University of Maryland contract, so I can't dig up any specifics. In all fairness, even if the work WAS just to stand up a mailing list and a wiki, I would expect it to be no less than 3 million. Many contractors spend up to a million just to WIN THE BID (though unlikely for one so small), but hell, just meeting the requirements of the RFP process requires expert personnel who charge upwards of $300 an hour.
rsingel 17y ago
Um, did you all not get that the reference to developing a mailing list and a wiki was tongue-in-cheek? I know coders are often literal, but come on, y'all are supposed to be smart in these parts.

by ig1 17y ago

philk 17y ago

I might be a little too cynical here but a government agency spending millions on something that is functionally equivalent to a mailing list and a wiki is not an unrealistic scenario.

kgrin 17y ago
Maybe, but the article doesn't actually present any evidence that that's what's going on.
- philk 17y ago
  I agree completely and it's a poorly written article. However, it's been my experience that far too often in government/big business you wind up with a project that costs millions of dollars that could have been pulled off by two hackers, ~200K and an infinite supply of caffeine.
- invisible 17y ago
  It could be claimed the vagueness of the contract leads the writer to think the company will do it on the cheap (if they don't allow scope creep). Maybe it will cost the company 1 million somehow, but ultimately it shouldn't cost even that.

raffi 17y ago

Agreed. This is link-bait at its best. I've seen situations where a contractor worked in this capacity. Usually it also included hosting conferences, setting up a resource where a lot of information is organized and available, generating reports, and putting up a mailing list/wiki. How much they're doing for $20 million? I don't know. But it's definitely more than a mailing list and a wiki.

bmelton 17y ago

Usually you can find the specifics of these sorts of contracts on FBO.gov, but upon a closer inspection of the article, the $20MM win to Booz was a University of Maryland contract, so I can't dig up any specifics. In all fairness, even if the work WAS just to stand up a mailing list and a wiki, I would expect it to be no less than 3 million. Many contractors spend up to a million just to WIN THE BID (though unlikely for one so small), but hell, just meeting the requirements of the RFP process requires expert personnel who charge upwards of $300 an hour.

rsingel 17y ago

Um, did you all not get that the reference to developing a mailing list and a wiki was tongue-in-cheek? I know coders are often literal, but come on, y'all are supposed to be smart in these parts.