> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of David Handy
> And it doesn't appear to be open source, either. (No source code > available, and I couldn't find any explicit license, other than a > statement that it was "freeware". Nor - of course - is it cross platform. I agree that is a relevant concern - but articulating why is somewhat difficult. I have little such concerns related to software for business use - for example. Nor am I unconcerned about the Open Source community's tendency to be uncritical of efforts to distribute "educational software" - based on little more than the merit of being cross platform and Open Source. The best I can do is trying to make the analogy of the reaction to a release of a scientific or academic paper that withheld citations and bibliography - as confidential. But of course -having them there does not make it a sound scientific or academic paper. I - like many others- welcome much of the disruption of the disruptive technologies. On the other hand - disruption is disruption. And part of what can and does get disrupted are sound common sense notions. A company like Microsoft would be ashamed - based on more traditional notions - of publicly promoting a position that the realization of the potential of our children is part of their mission. The reality is they spend enormous dollars promoting just such a position - with little general reaction. If there was truth to such an assertion they should (and would) be satisfied to let uninterested others find it, and promote it. Quite possibly this concern/phobia/paranoia of mine is a tempest in a teapot. A stage of be disruption will pass, and thinking around such issues of children's education and the profit motive's of $multibillion business enterprises will return to where common sense concerns regain their footing. But I still see the jury as out. So a few paragraphs sent into cyberspace still seems worth the effort. Art _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
