This is a silly story, IMHO. There are some folks who are complaining that Philadelphia's CIO Dianah Neff, the woman who led the Wireless Philadelphia initiative, has been taking too many trips on the city's dime as well as being paid for by other parties, including EarthLink.
Today's Philadelphia Inquirer discusses how Ms. Neff has been traveling around the country and world championing citywide wireless and talking about how it can be implemented in other municipalities. The complaint is that she goes on a trip about once every three weeks, and there are some who feel she should be spending more time in the office.
Let's be real here, folks. The fact of the matter is that in order to conduct business in our global economy, you have to be able to go places to meet and discuss business. Despite all of the technological innovations we have witnessed in just the past few years, the number one way to do business is to meet with people face-to-face.
Of course, you want to make sure that elected officials who are traveling and having their expenses paid for by taxpayers are for legitimate reasons. However, the Wireless Philadelphia initiative has drawn worldwide attention and if she has the opportunity to go somewhere with the potential to bring in business for the wireless network and the city at large as well as spread the gospel about citywide wireless, then she should be allowed to do so. Some of these government watchdog groups fail to see the big picture sometimes...
