Release 2

I was recently at an IT company conference where the hosts were doing a “show and tell” on their “generation 2” program for working out the centre of gravity on aircraft. If and aircraft is incorrectly balanced it will not fly and since the 1980’s computers have worked out the safety calculations to ensure that the aircraft will not crash. The Aviation IT Industry is engaged on a big upgrade where the various suppliers are moving from “green screen” DOS programming to windows “drag and drop technology”. This particular company is currently running about 18 months behind on the original timetable for the upgrade and release 1 has been rescheduled for June 2011. All the questions from the audience were about the new functionality and almost every response from the supplier was “that will be in release 2”.

After about an hour of this it occurred to me that I could have done much better in school if when handing in my homework I said “don’t worry the rest of it is in release 2!”

GPS tracking of staff

This is an interesting subject that I am looking into at the moment. The current generation of smart phones contain a GPS chip which, when activated, allows the user to be pinpointed and tracked. There are software applications that allow for the signal to be overlaid on a map giving the base station an even more information about the individual. The tracking software can be set to send alerts via e-mail or screen pop ups if an individual goes to a certain location of breaks the speed limit whilst driving a company car.

I imagine most readers are now reacting with horror about a world where your every move is being tracked. E-mail’s are being sent to the office every time you break a speed limit and if you go for an interview your boss gets an alert that you have entered competitor’s premises.

There is however another side to this.....

As an employer I have a duty of care to my staff several of whom work overseas in all sorts of places for three weeks or more at a time. These staff members subcontract to one of my customers who move them about the world as they require.

In this case the GPS signal can send an alert direct to our corporate insurance company should they go into an area like Afghanistan saying when they have arrived and when they have departed. The software is fitted with a feature where, if any key is depressed for three seconds, the camera and speaker automatically come on and relay what they can see and hear direct to the base station to allow them to call for help immediately

So the question is ..... is GPS tracking “big brother” or “duty of care”?