However, the reason we’re left with this mess isn’t because there’s not smart enough people out there to do it, but because of larger political problems in this country. If we want to stop this happening we need to address those issues. I know in my field, Web Development, most of the better companies tend not to bother with applying for tendered jobs because it requires an awful lot of work to be done for free, and they usually have a favoured partner already.

The Central queue should be updated in pretty much real time. A queue implementation like activemq will handle a plaza being unavailable and just store up the messages while it is unreachable.

Colin

Bang on the nose. Almost:) What you describe is an approximation of how the system operates and as you point out how any half thought out system with some degree of resiliency operates (which to be fair it is). The one issue you don’t address though is timing, how often is the CQB refreshed, by whom and whose responsibility? The devil is in the detail I’m afraid, given the curious locations of some plaza’s I’m sure you wouldn’t opt for real time unless you wanted some real fun:) If it isn’t real time then someone somewhere is responsible for doing what they are supposed to do when they are supposed to do it…or more to the point it depends on ALL parties in multiple organisations doing their bit when they are supposed to do their bit

/P