IT Nirvana

It’s rare when an institutional need meets a personal opportunity so elegantly as the one that’s now open to IT professionals.

About six weeks ago, some of us conceived the idea that the Dean Campaign could enjoy what no organization has ever experienced: IT Nirvana. What would happen, we wondered, if some of the people working on the Americans For Dean project went up to Burlington and did whatever it takes to make the network, the computers and the software run like a Swiss watch. Though we’d never seen it happen, we knew that there was plenty of geekpower available to make it so.

Have you ever seen the flashbacks on West Wing to the early days of the first campaign? Have you ever wanted to put yourself in a position to–just maybe–have a beer or flip a frisbee with the next Toby, Sam, Josh or Donna?

How’d you like to experience the excitement, drama, people and spirit of an historic presidential campaign while it’s still small enough to be personal and fun? If you’re a qualified geek, you may be able to. And as a geek volunteer, you’ll have the gratitude of the people you help, and represent the leading edge of the most important revolution in governance since . . . since . . . well, you pick the last time power moved away from the politicians and toward the people. My answer seems too dramatic.

The Dean Campaign has accepted our proposal from last weekend that Tech volunteers spend a week at a time helping the campaign with its IT needs. Like any organization, the campaign staff needs help with keeping the computers running, the network up, the new Ethernet nodes installed, routers set up, and anti-virus software kept current.

There’s also the kind of stuff that turns crazy employees into happy campers: how do I format this table in Word? How do I create new mailboxes in Outlook? And on & on.

And there’s an army of geeks around the country ready to support you around the clock. Instead of soldiering through some software problem alone, post the issue to the mailing list and see it jumped on by the Dean Tech Dream Team.

Campaign HQ is in Burlington, Vermont on the shores of Lake Champlain. Where would you rather spend a week in August?

Here’s You. There’s the Plate. Step Right Up.

Think of it as an Adventure Camp for IT Pros.

The first two volunteers are invited to arrive in Burlington as early as Sunday, August 3. We’re developing a rotating schedule so that the two volunteers share a motel room near the campaign HQ, arriving Sunday by noon and leaving Sunday afternoon, so the outgoing team can brief the new one.

This is a true volunteer project. The volunteers will pay for their travel, room and board and expenses. You won’t need a car unless you want to see the sights. Heh. Like you’d have time.

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