Eric,
I share your sentiments. BPI, fortunately, provides an alternate site
for us non-IE users. Citibank's online services supports non-IE users
as well. PNB, OTOH, sucks big time!
Anyway, I blame it on the bank's IT people before STUPID! Yes, I dare
say so because they do not know how to use open web standards - that
alone makes them stupid! Now, if only the banks will know how stupid
their IT people are - I am sure that they will do something about it.
I propose a WALL OF SHAME for these sites! We can always publicly
shame them for not supporting open standards. :) Right now, this is
the direction I am going within UP - shaming those who force its
users to use Microsoft Office to open university documents. :D
Cheers!
On Oct 10, 2006, at 7:10 AM, eric pareja wrote:
> This is a rather late response to this thread and slightly askew.
> Instead of the back-end, which consumers won't really care that much
> about, what I am more concerned about regarding bank websites,
> particularly their online banking portals, is that most of them seem
> to -require- you to use a particulare web-browser on a particular OS.
> As a consumer, I do not find it funny that I am forced to use that
> specific combination of software to be able to access their online
> services. Of course, the numbers of end-users who don't use that
> specific combination of software is not the majority, but it is by no
> means insignificant. I am lucky that there is a workaround for some of
> these, but I still have to go through hoops to be able to manage my
> bank account online using Linux. It would have been so much easier for
> consumers (this includes us, Linux/BSD/MacOS users) really if they had
> just used open standards to build their portals.
>
> I suppose the same can be said about government portals that should be
> accessible to all.
>
> Most of us on this list already know about the benefits of using open
> standards as well as free and open source software. Do IT
> professionals in banking and government have a clue in this direction?
> What can we do about this, if they do not?
>
Calling them stupid won't make a difference. Maybe they haven't heard of open standards or Linux (It's possible. Go out on the streets and ask if people know about FOSS. If they do, some will give FOSS->Linux). Maybe you could write to the IT department of these banks and educate them. Or try emailing customer service (meron pa ba neto sa Pinas?)
I think IT managers that don't know FOSS are incompetent though. It should be their job to know the options and stuff like these. What we need to do is increase the awareness and presence of FOSS.
--
JP Loh
Web: http://www.jploh.com/
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