IT and the BMV

So, a few Saturdays ago I'm going through the mail and find a notice from Indiana's Bureau of Motor Vehicles. I open the notice and -- much to my surprise -- learn that my driver's license has been suspended for failure to pay a seat belt violation in Hamilton County (I will resist the urge for my standard libertarian rant about this ill-conceived law.)

Anyway, I was shocked and a little freaked out because I needed to drive somewhere that day (and every day after that.) I remembered getting the ticket, but I also remembered going to the Hamilton County courthouse to pay it. So why was I suspended?

I had to wait until Monday to reach someone at the BMV to find out (resisting the urge for a taxpayer rant about BMV customer service). And after 20 minutes on hold, I learned that I really wasn't suspended. I was told:

"Mr. Harmon, there was a glitch."

That was it. No explanation. No apology. Just "there was a glitch."

As I started to wrap up the telephone call, it occurred to me that this "glitch" might affect more people than just me, so I asked to be transferred to a supervisor who might be able to address the situation. When I finally reached one, she asked me to fax the notice to her and said she'd look into it. Apparently, she didn't look hard enough, because Channel 6's Rafael "You Don't Want Me On Your Doorstep" Sanchez broke the story earlier today that over 600 people were similarly affected by this glitch. That's 600 fellow Hoosiers that had the same disquieting feeling I had on that fateful Saturday afternoon when I received my suspension notice.

Now, as someone who has spent the majority of his career involved with technology, I understand that developing quality information systems can be challenging. Requirements change. Bugs appear. Glitches happen.

It's tough work. But developing a system that shocks over 600 people into thinking their driving privileges are suspended is simply unacceptable. Especially without anything that looks like a sincere apology. BMV spokesman Greg Cook is quoted as saying:

"No excuses. We had a computer system conversion … and the system is a long way from where it was then... We want to make it to where the system is absolutely error-free."

While I applaud his willingness to accept responsibility for the error, are they going to recognize those of us who were affected by it? Trust me, it's not fun to get a notice like that when your driving record is clean.

An apology would certainly go a long way (then again, so would a free registration for my car in 2007). Yet at the time of this post, the most visible link on the BMV website points you to a page that documents the efficiency metrics of their branches! In theory, that's an interesting way of sharing information about their service levels. But in the grand scheme of things, I'd much rather have their computer system NOT SUSPEND ME instead of telling me how long it takes to renew a drivers license at the Nora branch.

One of the key takeaways here is that in the software development world, it can be tempting to try and implement every feature imaginable -- when in reality you really should be focusing on developing very solid core functionality and build up from there. With that in mind, I think I'll send the BMV a few copies of 37Signals' e-book entitled Getting Real. Clearly, they could learn a few lessons from it.

Blogging Seminar This Morning

I would like to take a moment to thank the 15+ people who attended today's seminar on Blogging. As promised, I am going to answer one of the questions I needed to research a little bit.

The question was: Can you attach a file (ie. Word, PDF, Excel, etc.) to a blog post?

I'm happy to report that the answer is yes (at least as far as MovableType and my version of TypePad is concerned -- I don't know about Blogger.)

Here is an example of such an attachment. It comes from our friends at NPower NY and addresses some of the other "social media" outlets that might be good to know about. The file is attached below:

Download org2.0.pdf

Also, I thought I would list some of the nonprofit / technology blogs that I regularly read. Here they are:

http://www.donorpowerblog.com/donor_power_blog/
http://www.sirkin.com/nonprofit_emarketing
http://nonprofitblogexchange.blogspot.com
http://www.gettingattention.org/my_weblog/
http://changematters.blogspot.com
http://www.whatsnextblog.com/
http://inprogress.typepad.com/studio501c/

If you're interested in taking a look at RSS as a means of staying up-to-date with these blogs, a good primer can be found here.

Thanks to everyone for the time and attention. It was a very active discussion and I look forward to more of that in the future.

Flash Drives for Storing Medical Data

Many of the nonprofit organizations we serve provide health services to the central Indiana community, so I thought this might be of interest. This product is still in development, but it's an interesting concept: a biometric flash drive that records things like lab results, x-rays and other information while supposedly complying with the Health Information Privacy and Portability Act.

Click here to read the full report from Engadget.

Close encounters (of the technology kind)

Last week I attended an Open House / Graduation Ceremony for the Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center (INRC). The turnout was great -- the event was so packed that I barely found a chair towards the back of the room!

Once seated, I struck up a conversation with the gentleman seated next to me, and as luck would have it, it was Scott Keller, the Executive Director of one of our member organizations (The Timmy Foundation).

After learning more about the foundation's mission, I asked Scott what some of his technology issues were. He shared with me that they have volunteer-staffed offices around the world that channel resources to sustainable health projects in developing countries.

Scott mentioned that they coordinate their information using spreadsheets sent as email attachments, and that they have a hard time keeping track of the current versions of the spreadsheets (sound familiar?). He asked me if I knew of any ways to solve that. As luck would have it, I did have a suggestion -- try Google Spreadsheets. It is a (FREE) web-based service that allows multiple people to collaborate on a spreadsheet. No more attachments. No more email. Just the latest information in a centralized place on the web.

I haven't circled back with Scott yet to see if that solved their problem, but I suspect it did. I can't promise all of our members that I'll have the answer to their biggest technology challenge. But it never hurts to have a conversation! If there's something on your mind, drop me a line at mike (at) npowerin (dot) org

Bill Gates on Charlie Rose

I was relaxing at home one night earlier this week and decided to turn on the TV. While cycling through the programs recorded by my Tivo, I saw an episode of PBS's The Charlie Rose Show that caught my eye. 

Bill Gates at Stanford.

While it wasn't Charlie's best work, they covered some interesting technology tidbits like the new Zune player (a rival to the ubiquitous iPod), the upcoming Windows Vista operating system, and XBox 360.

I was hoping that they would cover more about Mr. Gates' vision for the impact of technology on the world of philanthropy. When I think about what he did to the personal computer industry over the past 30 years starting from scratch, I wonder what is going to happen to the philanthropic sector as a result of his day-to-day involvement with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. With his funds, experience and connections, I expect there will be an equally amazing transformation.

If you're interested in seeing the program, it's located here on Google Video. I also just found this footage of Charlie's interview with Mr. and Mrs. Gates and Warren Buffet around the time of Mr. Buffet's $30 Billion donation to the Gates Foundation.