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World Cup slows City of Vancouver websites

Too many city employees watching soccer online at work
world cup

FIFA World Cup fever is spreading at Vancouver city hall, where too many employees are watching too many webcasts of the beautiful game.

City of Vancouver staff received an email memo several minutes after Germany edged the United States 1-0 at Brazil 2014 in their final Group G match on June 26 under the subject “World Cup 2014 - Be Bandwidth Aware.”

“With World Cup 2014 in full swing, we'd like to remind employees that ‘bandwidth intensive’ activities, like watching live stream television, are restricted by the Computing and Telecommunications Policy,” said the memo from Human Resources General Manager Paul Mochrie and Chief Information Officer Mark McDonald.

“Currently some of our online services to the public (VanMap) are being slowed as a result of a high volume of internal city computers accessing live stream television during work hours. As a result of this slowing, Internet bandwidth use will be monitored and usage capped so we can continue to prioritize our public-facing services.”

McDonald did not respond to an interview request nor did city hall tell the Courier how much bandwidth is being used during World Cup webcasts.

The city policy allows occasional personal use of city computers by staff “provided that it does not interfere with city business or incur additional cost to the city.” Users, it said, “should try to confine personal use to non-working times such as lunches and breaks or before or after regular working hours.”

Bandwidth intensive activities include broadcast emails to large groups, chain letter email, and accessing real time data streams or audio on the Internet.

“Any violation of this policy may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination,” the policy said.

Communications manager Tobin Postma told the Courier, via email, “Many of our employees are following the World Cup and are interested to catch updates and live games during their meal periods and scheduled breaks.”

All of the games are during business hours, which is also when residents are accessing city websites.

“With Building Bylaw services moving to online tools, property tax time and summer programs being offered, a lot of residents are using our e-services (including the city’s website) and so we are monitoring internet bandwidth and capping internal usage to ensure that we are able to continue to prioritize our public-facing services,” Postma said.

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