On the DTV transition as an IT project

We were all supposed to have digital television by now, but it got delayed.

That was in 2006. Now it's 2008, and Congress voted to delay it a little more, from just after the Super Bowl to June 12.

(If you use cable or satellite television, nothing is changing anyway, except that your service provider will continue to act like jerks. OK, nothing at all.)

I'm OK with the delay. The people who will be most affected by the change are those least able to cope with it: people who do not pay for cable or satellite TV services, and especially those who live in rural areas far from TV station antennae. The next few months will let Congress re-fund the coupons for DTV converter boxes, distribute them properly, and settle the confusion. Frankly, the FCC ought to put an ad in during the Super Bowl.

An oft-repeated but nevertheless believable statistic is that 70% of all major IT projects are failures. The DTV transition is an IT project -- a big, multiyear (since 1997ish), multicompany project with barely any sense of ownership or direction. The technical standards were set years ago. TV stations have been ready for months to years. And somehow, everyone assumed that the end-users were going to be self-educating.

On the DTV transition as an IT project

We were all supposed to have digital television by now, but it got delayed.

That was in 2006. Now it's 2008, and Congress voted to delay it a little more, from just after the Super Bowl to June 12.

(If you use cable or satellite television, nothing is changing anyway, except that your service provider will continue to act like jerks. OK, nothing at all.)

I'm OK with the delay. The people who will be most affected by the change are those least able to cope with it: people who do not pay for cable or satellite TV services, and especially those who live in rural areas far from TV station antennae. The next few months will let Congress re-fund the coupons for DTV converter boxes, distribute them properly, and settle the confusion. Frankly, the FCC ought to put an ad in during the Super Bowl.

An oft-repeated but nevertheless believable statistic is that 70% of all major IT projects are failures. The DTV transition is an IT project -- a big, multiyear (since 1997ish), multicompany project with barely any sense of ownership or direction. The technical standards were set years ago. TV stations have been ready for months to years. And somehow, everyone assumed that the end-users were going to be self-educating.