2005
SPECTRUM, INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGIES & TELECOMMUNICATIONS
My View of Spectrum,
Information Technologies and Telecommunications (SITT)
By Lucille Eustache
When the call went out for volunteers to write an
article for P&NR Connections I thought, “I have just started, what could I write
about that would interest anyone?” but I did hit upon something. I started with
the Federal Government with Electricity and Gas under Consumer and Corporate
Affair (Now Measurement Canada) so I thought taking a DAP assignment for 12
months would not be too difficult, after all I knew the federal government
system. HA!
When they talk about the government being all acronyms they probably had walked
into a SITT office. At first you are not sure if everyone is speaking some other
language. When I tried to decipher this alphabet soup used for computer
applications and almost everything else, I found out that most people had
forgotten what the letters stood for. At a recent stand-up meeting that seemed
to be in secret code, I was not the one to ask, “What do those letters mean?”
The talk went something like this, “GDOC 3.41 will replace APTRAC and be able to
do some OLDE functions, but it won’t replace SCOMS at this time.”
Those I asked knew what the computer applications were used for and
approximately what the letters meant of course, but to explain it to someone
from the beginning it seemed some applications were new, some were old, and some
were in between, some were under development and some were not yet available.
Some applications did one thing and some did many things as well as part of an
old application, but you still needed the old application for a couple of
special things. If I have confused you then you will understand how I was
feeling! I thought it was some archaic initiation rite. Then two months into my
job I saw a ray of light when someone told me there were some flow charts for
this somewhere. “Eureka! At last!” I thought, “the map through this strange
territory.” The flow charts would be helpful if I understood the terms they
referred to and if they were up-to-date. “Oh, these are all badly outdated, but
there are plans for them to be reviewed and updated some time soon,” said my
helpful co-worker.
Actually everyone has been very tolerant of my many (endless) questions and I am
starting to see the light, (dimly, I admit, but it’s coming). I have processed
and authorized some applications, (I apologize to Alberta SITT for any mix-ups);
found some interferences problems, been on a road trip and seen some suppliers,
now it is just about time for me to go on some training so I can learn how to do
all these things properly. All this in only three months! Well it has been
interesting so far. I look forward to the next nine months and what they will
bring.
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