Re: Affecting Institutional Change (Yeah Right)
On Tue, May 08, 2007 at 10:55:25PM -0400, Amy Templeton wrote:
> > > Douglas Allan Tutty <dtutty@porchlight.ca> wrote:
> > > > On Tue, May 08, 2007 at 03:49:54PM -0400, Amy Templeton wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > Can anybody recommend a *really, really convincing* source of
> > > > > information I can give people/my college that will aid in deterring
> > > > > them from trying to force people to use MS-Office files (by sending
> > > > > them via email and posting them on official college sites)? The
> > > > > ones I've been using
>
> > > > Talk directly to the people creating the files. Explain the
> > > > problem and ask them what they would need to effect change. I've
> > > > never used an MS office product so I don't know what's involved,
> > > > also I don't know the content of the files or how they are
> > > > generating them.
>
> Fair enough. I guess I'm just getting frustrated because I feel
> like I'm the only one on campus who *doesn't* use MS and MS-for-Mac
> products exclusively (or at all), despite there apparently being a
> 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 than my particular
> minimalist-when-it-comes-to-computers aesthetic will allow for, and
> definitely more into that stuff than into encouraging good
> practices. So basically I kind of wish there were some magic
> solution that would save me from having to nag at professors and
> administrators constantly (or at least when printed copies of the
> documents aren't available) about this.
>
> > > > Perhaps they can provide an easy pointy-clicky-gimmik that
> > > > transforms their doc files to something useful. It may be as
> > > > simple as adding a button to a tool bar, right beside the "save
> > > > as doc file", a "save as something useful" button. The author may
> > > > not have the skill or permission to change the toolbar directly.
>
> Hmm...that would be an interesting trick. I'll google around on
> that; if I could find something about that it'd be pretty useful.
Talk to the people who actually run the college's network and computing
infrastructure. If they run MS on their servers then there's not much
hope. If they run Linux or BSD then they may be of some help. It may
be them that set up the profs' desktops and don't allow the profs to
alter the setup, which is why the sysadmins may be the ones to get to
add a dooclicky. I would talk to them before trying to google and find
a clicky.
Doug.
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