I would agree that a CIO shouldn't have to know the mechanics of how spam works - being that I would like to think that I do my job well enough so that my management does not need to know such things. This is one of numerous things that I would stipulate that users should never really need to understand. I do my job, so they can do their job. I would go so far as to equate it to being a type of mechanic. The user is just a driver, while I make sure the vehicle is operating properly.
But in terms of your original question, this is the one thing that if management DID understand, it would make everything else all that much more easy to accomplish. People expect email to just work, and equally expect me to just be able to stop spam. But its just not that easy because of how the underlying technology works. Email (SMTP) was not conceptually designed to handle what we do with it today. There is a serious lack of control and accounting. I believe a geeky CIO is a very good thing. Granted, the ability to make appropriate technology decisions is paramount - but to have an understanding of the underlying nature of that technology is bar-none the biggest asset in terms of properly leveraging that technology. For me, "If the CIO was going to change one thing about the way the company deals with spam," it would be to educate and manage through company policy the way users are allowed to use email. In my years as a network and e-mail administrator, my biggest concerns is what the users expose the company to: by what they download as well as what they use their email address for. Esther Schindler wrote: > Hi, Michael! > > It's funny -- most of the people who have been answering me feel that > the CIO _shouldn't_ have to know the mechanics of how spam works. > Several people believe that the CIO's role isn't to mess with the > technical details. Instead, the CIO should know about the effects of > spam, the difficulty of dealing with spam, the costs of doing so, > whatever. > > Which isn't to say that your viewpoint isn't equally valid. But since > it's not the "usual," I'd like to know more. Just how geeky do you > want the CIO to be? At a high level, I suppose, a tech-centric CIO > might understand the reasons you prefer one tool over another; at a > very low level, you'd chat about MX records and SPF configuration over > lunch. What's the "right" amount to know? (And do you expect the CIO > to be equally knowledgeable about other IT matters, from programming > methodology to software deployment?) > > Or, to put the original question another way: if the CIO was going to > change one thing about the way the company deals with spam, what would > it be? > > Esther > > On Jan 10, 2007, at 9:54 AM, Micheal Espinola Jr wrote: > >> If you would like just a quick blurb, then my response to your question, >> “If you could get your CIO (or top management) to understand one thing, >> just ONE thing, about fighting spam, what would it be?“, is simple: >> >> I would like top management to understand the mechanics of how email >> works. >> >> Then, and I believe only then, would they be able to grasp the concepts >> that elude most users of email. The how and why spam gets through >> filters and applications that cost thousands of dollars - even with >> ongoing subscription services. And why it is important to the financial >> bottom line to properly combat spam because of both the wasted man-hours >> for users dealing with deleting spam, as well as the email administrator >> with managing filters and dealing assisting users. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Assp-user mailing list Assp-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/assp-user
