I went to the Education and Science Committee today at Parliament to see presentation of petitions on adult and community education (ACE). It was, much as I expected, a waste of time. The petitions were signed and presented last year when the issue was still alive, but now the funding has been cut and there’s not that much more to say.

The diverting part was watching the officials deal with the technology (or not). All of the MPs now have computers and there’s a flash videoconferencing system, but…the person in Nelson could see, but couldn’t hear, the MPs on the video link (we could hear her). So then someone dials her mobile phone on the speakerphone but leaves the sound on the videoconferencing on just enough that we get that mobile phone interference coming through. And the videoconferencing equipment required two people – one older guy who couldn’t make it work and a younger guy who sat down for 40 minutes.

A few phone calls were made on the speakerphone, but each time the committee clerk interrupted the MPs by dialling at the table (loud dial tone, beeps for each number, getting through to the right extension…). Someone should tell them that you could plug a normal handset into that phone and make the connection off in the corner without annoying everyone else. The whole exercise was a great example of why you need to train people after you buy a lot of equipment.

Learning State, there’s a job in the public sector for your ITO – hopefully Parliament is just exempt from the OIA, not industry training!