Donald J Bindner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > On Wed, Mar 05, 2003 at 05:00:17PM -0600, Jon Beck wrote: >> So I'm curious: from your personal point of view, what do you think a >> big corporation like IBM could do to foster the adoption of open >> standards software and systems (from any source, not just IBM) in the >> higher education arena in general and at Truman specifically? > > There are two levels at which you would want to see the adoption > of open standards. You want Computer Services to use them, and > you want Faculty/Students to use them. > > Among students and faculty, the largest single barrier to open > standards is the Windows/Office combination. If you want people > to adopt open standards, the key is transitioning them first from > Office and then possibly Windows. > > There is a greater opportunity to do this with students.
And also a greater obstacle; namely, the faculty. I get several attachments from other faculty members, often a document in .doc format, which more often than not contains no non-trivial formatting. In other words, there's no reason it should have been an attachment. (Pointing this out to the faculty member will get me a hard copy in my mailbox. More doc documents in the mail, too, of course.) If the students get any class information through email, I would guess that a lot of it is in doc format. (Perhaps a student can comment on this.) > With students the bottom line is everything. That can't afford > anything. They are younger and more adventurous than faculty, and > more likely to try other software. Many of them use MS Office or > other MS software that is not legally acquired. And they'll continue to use it, if they feel that their classes depend on it. (I realize that OpenOffice can do a pretty good job with MSWord documents, but I don't think it's perfect, and I would think a lot of students would insist on perfect copies of any class critical materials, whether it would actually matter or not.) Exactly how big of an obstacle this really is I can't say. Perhaps students don't get important documents in email in MSWord format, or perhaps they would be happy reading them in OpenOffice. Maybe it isn't a problem; if it is, though, I unfortunately don't have a solution. Jay ----------------------------------------------------------------- To get off this list, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with Subject: unsubscribe -----------------------------------------------------------------
