3 ms·

I wonder how many years the US could save its citizens by modernizing and digitizing the IRS, DMV, etc. Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands?

jeffbee 4y ago
I recently discovered that the U.S. Social Security Administration has business hours ... for their website. They operate a website that is closed at night and on weekends. One is hard-pressed to imagine the level of IT dysfunction necessary to reach this point.
- eropple 4y ago
  I investigated that once, and I don't think it's IT dysfunction in that case. My understanding (because I found this odd as well) is that it's because the support load for that site is so high, and the likelihood of abandoned processes without support so high, that the best solution they had at whatever point in time they instituted that was business-hours operation.
- anotherman554 4y ago
  I have not researched this but rather than being a sign of IT dysfunction my guess would be the government contracts out the maintenance of the web site to the private sector and the contract specs happen to be written to say it will be closed on nights and weekends. In theory this makes the contract cheaper than if the government was buying 24/7 support.
  - Eleison23 4y ago
    It would seem to us that nights and weekends are the most convenient time for citizens to access government services such as this. But the things that are down for maintenance are not our publicly-accessible frontends, they're the backend databases that the administration uses internally as well. So it would seem that all the worker bees in government offices rely on having access to those backend databases during USA office hours, and the only time they can realistically be shut down is while the civil servants are off the clock.
    - jeffbee 4y ago
      I view a database that needs to go down for maintenance as "IT dysfunction".
- antihero 4y ago
  Probably so that there's no backlog buildup over the weekend?
  - jeffbee 4y ago
    Backlog of? You can go to SSA.gov and look at your statements, but only if it's weekday business hours in the lower 48, otherwise you cannot.
- minhazm 4y ago
  The Bangladesh Embassy in D.C. had a similar issue a few years ago. They had a document you needed to fill out that was just hosted on someones computer and when that person would shut their computer down each night or over the weekend the link would stop working. They've at least fixed that since then.
  - baybal2 4y ago
- llanowarelves 4y ago
  IRS is same way: have to get EIN through form during business hours. Long ago, the Best Buy website also closed then opened during business hours.
giantg2 4y ago
The IRS/tax problem is one of corporate lobbying and partisan politics (usually the proposals to reduce or eliminate tax regulations are met by opposition).
icoder 4y ago
US democracy could change by having a central registry of everyone, ensuring everyone gets their voting pass automatically, skipping the faulty and bumpy process of voter registration amd inequality of identification-ability
- PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
  The opposition to national registries and national ID here is extremely strong.

jeffbee 4y ago

I recently discovered that the U.S. Social Security Administration has business hours ... for their website. They operate a website that is closed at night and on weekends. One is hard-pressed to imagine the level of IT dysfunction necessary to reach this point.

eropple 4y ago
I investigated that once, and I don't think it's IT dysfunction in that case. My understanding (because I found this odd as well) is that it's because the support load for that site is so high, and the likelihood of abandoned processes without support so high, that the best solution they had at whatever point in time they instituted that was business-hours operation.
anotherman554 4y ago
I have not researched this but rather than being a sign of IT dysfunction my guess would be the government contracts out the maintenance of the web site to the private sector and the contract specs happen to be written to say it will be closed on nights and weekends. In theory this makes the contract cheaper than if the government was buying 24/7 support.
- Eleison23 4y ago
  It would seem to us that nights and weekends are the most convenient time for citizens to access government services such as this. But the things that are down for maintenance are not our publicly-accessible frontends, they're the backend databases that the administration uses internally as well. So it would seem that all the worker bees in government offices rely on having access to those backend databases during USA office hours, and the only time they can realistically be shut down is while the civil servants are off the clock.
  - jeffbee 4y ago
    I view a database that needs to go down for maintenance as "IT dysfunction".
antihero 4y ago
Probably so that there's no backlog buildup over the weekend?
- jeffbee 4y ago
  Backlog of? You can go to SSA.gov and look at your statements, but only if it's weekday business hours in the lower 48, otherwise you cannot.
minhazm 4y ago
The Bangladesh Embassy in D.C. had a similar issue a few years ago. They had a document you needed to fill out that was just hosted on someones computer and when that person would shut their computer down each night or over the weekend the link would stop working. They've at least fixed that since then.
- baybal2 4y ago
llanowarelves 4y ago
IRS is same way: have to get EIN through form during business hours. Long ago, the Best Buy website also closed then opened during business hours.

giantg2 4y ago

The IRS/tax problem is one of corporate lobbying and partisan politics (usually the proposals to reduce or eliminate tax regulations are met by opposition).

icoder 4y ago

US democracy could change by having a central registry of everyone, ensuring everyone gets their voting pass automatically, skipping the faulty and bumpy process of voter registration amd inequality of identification-ability

PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
The opposition to national registries and national ID here is extremely strong.