Wednesday, September 17, 2003
When I need to look like I'm busy I tend to flick through Update, the official magazine for Cilip members which once contributed headlines to the missing words round at the end of an episode of 'Have I Got News For You'.
Anyway, they mention that there's a push in Scotland to get public libraries there to loan out copies of open-source software to the public, an Edinburgh-based advocate Robert Kerr is trying to get libraries to accept his donations. I don't know much about Open Office but it sounds like a great idea. I doubt that Kerr would have much luck south of Hadrian's Wall though. There's the European Computer Driving Licence, which conflates the ideas of being proficient in using Microsoft Office components with being proficient with computers. There's also the People's Network, an admirable plan to help all libraries help the disadvantaged members of society (and foreign au pairs, if you happen to work in one of the more affluent London Boroughs) access ICT and the Internet, again through Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer. Still, based on the Government's usual way of doing things, I suppose we should be thankful that Capita aren't involved. Despite the way their 'patches' seem to have disrupted the smooth running of my home PC I'm not violently against Microsoft and this latest clever ploy to try and get total dominance of the PC OS market, what concerns me is that they've succeeded in making themselves invisible so that neither ECDL or the People's Network mention Microsoft at all, as though it would be as pointless as saying "Whilst you're learning you'll be breathing a cheeky hydrogen-oxygen compound that we like to call air. And don't worry that you'll suddenly go flying into space, the force of gravity is here to keep you grounded!"
Anyway, they mention that there's a push in Scotland to get public libraries there to loan out copies of open-source software to the public, an Edinburgh-based advocate Robert Kerr is trying to get libraries to accept his donations. I don't know much about Open Office but it sounds like a great idea. I doubt that Kerr would have much luck south of Hadrian's Wall though. There's the European Computer Driving Licence, which conflates the ideas of being proficient in using Microsoft Office components with being proficient with computers. There's also the People's Network, an admirable plan to help all libraries help the disadvantaged members of society (and foreign au pairs, if you happen to work in one of the more affluent London Boroughs) access ICT and the Internet, again through Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer. Still, based on the Government's usual way of doing things, I suppose we should be thankful that Capita aren't involved. Despite the way their 'patches' seem to have disrupted the smooth running of my home PC I'm not violently against Microsoft and this latest clever ploy to try and get total dominance of the PC OS market, what concerns me is that they've succeeded in making themselves invisible so that neither ECDL or the People's Network mention Microsoft at all, as though it would be as pointless as saying "Whilst you're learning you'll be breathing a cheeky hydrogen-oxygen compound that we like to call air. And don't worry that you'll suddenly go flying into space, the force of gravity is here to keep you grounded!"
