2005

SPECTRUM, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

My View of Spectrum, Information Technologies and Telecommunications (SITT)

By Lucille Eustache

When the call went out for volunteers to write an article for P&NR Connections I thought, “I have just started, what could I write about that would interest anyone?” but I did hit upon something. I started with the Federal Government with Electricity and Gas under Consumer and Corporate Affair (Now Measurement Canada) so I thought taking a DAP assignment for 12 months would not be too difficult, after all I knew the federal government system. HA!

When they talk about the government being all acronyms they probably had walked into a SITT office. At first you are not sure if everyone is speaking some other language. When I tried to decipher this alphabet soup used for computer applications and almost everything else, I found out that most people had forgotten what the letters stood for. At a recent stand-up meeting that seemed to be in secret code, I was not the one to ask, “What do those letters mean?” The talk went something like this, “GDOC 3.41 will replace APTRAC and be able to do some OLDE functions, but it won’t replace SCOMS at this time.”

Those I asked knew what the computer applications were used for and approximately what the letters meant of course, but to explain it to someone from the beginning it seemed some applications were new, some were old, and some were in between, some were under development and some were not yet available. Some applications did one thing and some did many things as well as part of an old application, but you still needed the old application for a couple of special things. If I have confused you then you will understand how I was feeling! I thought it was some archaic initiation rite. Then two months into my job I saw a ray of light when someone told me there were some flow charts for this somewhere. “Eureka! At last!” I thought, “the map through this strange territory.” The flow charts would be helpful if I understood the terms they referred to and if they were up-to-date. “Oh, these are all badly outdated, but there are plans for them to be reviewed and updated some time soon,” said my helpful co-worker.

Actually everyone has been very tolerant of my many (endless) questions and I am starting to see the light, (dimly, I admit, but it’s coming). I have processed and authorized some applications, (I apologize to Alberta SITT for any mix-ups); found some interferences problems, been on a road trip and seen some suppliers, now it is just about time for me to go on some training so I can learn how to do all these things properly. All this in only three months! Well it has been interesting so far. I look forward to the next nine months and what they will bring.