SINGLE POINTS OF FAILURE

SINGLE POINTS OF FAILURE – DISASTERS IN THE MAKING FOR CV

The following Comment was posted elsewhere in the BLOG:
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“prof pls said...

H. Silver may have worked on Channel 63 but for his own glory, he refused other volunteers and was a one man Committee, he did not care about the village, he dropped us in it when he quit and refused to help those trying to pick up the ball. He obviously has serious problems displayed at the Delegate Mtg, they should not be dumped on the village.Where is professional management that would know which Committees are not functioning for the benefit of the village?
Dec 22, 2008 9:29:00 AM”
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Your BLOGMEISTER can directly identify with this issue.

I do some peripheral work from time to time on the Channel 63 Committee, which now consists of Ken Davis, Ed Black and, as noted, yours truly; most importantly, others are in training; this includes Mike McNellis. Additionally, Ed is preparing an SOP with step-by-step instructions on how to update the Computer Graphics so that any computer literate type may learn to prepare and upload new material. I hope to be one of the first to work from this SOP and to assist in picking up some of the work load.

Previously, as the Commenter noted, the Committee was Howie Silver; although to his credit he did train Sadie Lovenger to post new graphics on the system, Sadie trained me and I am very appreciative of her efforts.
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I was taught very early in my career in the Intelligence Community never to be the only person who was knowledgeable on an important project, this problem is called “The Single Point of Failure” syndrome. This simply means that if the individual drops out for any reason, the project comes to a screeching halt.
Very nice, if you enjoy personal aggrandizement, but potentially very damaging to the project.
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The Channel 63 operation is technically complex, it is, after all a mini-TV station. There are a number of pieces of equipment involved which require careful patching and maintenance from time to time and there is much to be learned about the Hardware Computers and Software that make up the Graphics Creator and Player systems.
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Previously these sorts of maintenance problems were handled by a third party support entity at the cost of $350.00 per hour. The current Committee has eliminated this noisy filter and we now deal directly with the provider of the Hardware and Software; thus far at no Tech. support cost.
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The updating and care and feeding of the Computer Graphics system that we all view on Channel 63 has taken literally hundreds of hours of detail work by Ed Black; this work is ongoing without end and others are becoming progressively involved. You can thank these volunteers for the steady improvement of our Public Information Channel, CVTV-63.
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What does this all mean; simply put, there is no room in our Village for single person Committees. There must be apprentice programs initiated for all important Committees. There can be no “Shoot from the hip” philosophy in the running of our little City.
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There must be a program in place to encourage Research, Science, and Adherence to the Law, in all things. I reiterate, we are running a small City here and there must be no “Single Points of Failure”

Dave Israel