Re: Affecting Institutional Change (Yeah Right)
Andrew Sackville-West wrote:
> > > Joe Hart <j.hart@orange.nl> wrote:
> > > > You *could* refuse to deal with people that send you documents
> > > > that you cannot read, but reality says you must at least on
> > > > occasion do so.
> >
> Amy Templeton wrote:
> > Yeah, unfortunately most of the culprits are my professors and
> > other staff members at the college. Not really anybody I can
> > refuse to deal with, since they're in the position of power
> > here.
> Well, have you tried, upon receipt of such a monstrosity, kindly
> asking for a copy in plain text? I do it on occaision. You could
> even couch it in mildly mis-leading terms like "my copy of word
> is not working correctly... could you send me a plain text
> version until I get it repaired?"
Oh, definitely. As a matter of course, in fact (minus the
obfuscation). It's the fact that I have to keep asking the same
people and explaining to the same web people the same things week
after week, despite giving them a nice explanation the first time
'round on why it's beneficial to *everyone* to do things properly.
I'm all about personal communication; it's when I don't get through
that I start getting frustrated.
> > GNU/Linux group on campus (I haven't contacted them at all, but
> > the impression I get from their website is that they're more
> > into prettifying things with Compiz and such
> maybe you should educate them a little bit? A fem in the LUG
> would have serious impact. I'm sure you could sway policy any ol'
> way you wanted...
Haha...flattering as that is, I doubt they'd be that easily swayed.
Also, if they were...I'd hate it to be because of hormones rather
than what I have to say.
> seriously though, the LUG should be ready willing and eager to
> support you in this. They should be championing a push to open
> standards and accessibility. Its probably worth your time to at
> least talk to them.
Yeah...I'll probably get around to it next semester when they're in
their beginning-of-year confusion stage and don't know what
direction to go in.
> > (I occasionally do try to increase the ranks of women GNU/Linux
> > users in particular, since I'm the only one I know in real
> > life),
> my wife uses debian. Of course, she doesn't really know what it
> is, but then again, she uses it and is happy! So's my mom too.
> And no, I don't live in the basement. In fact she's using
> u*&^*^$tu on a power pc mac and hasn't needed any tech support in
> a good solid year. So you're not alone.
> Oh yeah! My *three* daughters use debian too. And they love it
> because I told them to do whatever they want cause they can't
> break it.
*Claps hands in nerdly excitement*! That's good news. A few people
I know have been scared off by the "boys' club" reputation that has
for some reason grown up around this stuff, and so it's good that
that's breaking down. There's room for everyone!
Thanks,
Amy
P.S.: Dear The List, sorry that my last post was CC'd rather than
"To." That was a mistake on my part.
--
I have great faith in fools -- self confidence my friends call it.
-- Edgar Allan Poe
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