Letters To The Editor

Leadership Lessons

Project methodologies are supposed to be tools but are frequently turned into pseudo-religions ("Four Steps To Make Big Projects Work," May 23). The lessons learned work as long as the staff and management team stays in place. Most IT staff would love to be

in a place where they truly can apply the lessons of their past and where project management is a help instead of a hindrance.

As always, these things come down to quality leadership. With it, lessons are learned, staffers are supported, and tools are helpful. Without it, nothing works too well.

Lynn Gitelis
Golden Valley, Minn.

Oscar-Worthy Meetings

The American Film Institute in Silver Spring, Md., uses its D-Cinema system during the day to host business and government teleconferences, meetings, and interactive media events ("Digital Force," May 16). This business model of daytime corporate conferencing and evening theatrical presentations helps make the cost of the digital cinema infrastructure palatable, possibly even profitable. This capability was included in the system design.

There are even more benefits:

Not only does a 20-foot-high D-Cinema PowerPoint presentation make quite an impression, but serving popcorn at the annual company meeting makes it all the more fun.

Cary Friedman Multimedia Consultant,
Clark Pond Associates,
Ipswich, Mass.

Privacy Power Play

I doubt anyone will bet against Bob Evans on his chief privacy officer forecast, but what would be more interesting is to see how much actual power they get ("Protecting Customer Data Is Good Business," May 9). Chief security officer assignments used to get the same focus, and then it turned out that they often lacked power to implement changes. What will make it different for CPOs?

Kathryn Roy President,
Precision Thinking,
Lexington, Mass.