three colds in three weeks. I am feeling very annoyed and very under the weather.

I got over the last cold and then two days later I have a new one.

Simple Versus Neat

At work, one of the things we are doing is preparing to replace a server with a more powerful one. As with all these things, there are always issues to talk through. One of the things I have noticed is that there are some people whose decisions are always different from what I would like them to choose.

After some thinking about this, I am coming to the conclusion that when it comes to such decisions, they choose the simple answer, when I would choose the neat answer.

so, for example, this server is multinetted, which means lots of static routing. It does not need to be like that, but currently it is. I would choose changing it so that the server is on only one network - it reduces complexity in the long run. My decision makers would chose the status quo - probably because it is the easy answer.

At work, this morning, I was going to get a coffee - as I usually do. To get to the canteen, I must walk through the lobby. Very often the lobby has stands with the latest thing that they are promoting is being pushed - I usually ignore these things.

Well, today, it was a bunch of people who were getting anonymous input on how well the organisation is communicating, and seeking ideas on how it could be done better. A whole stream of stuff went through my head: Cluetrain, RSS, all sorts of stuff. The thing is, I could not think of anything practical that did not make me sound like Mr Miagi from Karate Kid.

One of the things I noticed straight away was the fact that all the idea that were on the ideas board were top down ideas. I was hoping to see more bottom up stuff. The prospect excited me, but I was unable to provide anything that I felt would not be dismissed.

So, tonight, I am washing the dishes and listening to Lawrence Lessig. He talks about the innovation commons and the creative commons. He gives a description of the internet as an "end to end network" which is reminiscent of the "World of Ends". But it got me thinking again.

Should the principle of the end to end network apply to corporate networks too? Is it fair to say that the act of limiting what people can do on their corporate desktops through security policies, etc, restricting their ability to innovate? Lots of questions floating around my head.