On Wed, 20 Nov 2002, Matt Cahill wrote:
> I don't think you're off the mark, but the reality is that - at > least for now - it's the Microsoft/Adobe/Macromedia skillz that > employers are currently capable of recognizing on a CV. It's a > question of a balanced education, leveraged against what will help > them get IT jobs, and this is where an "open source initiative" > would be interesting to add to the mix...whatever that would be. First, I hope that feedback will get sent to Studio2 and the relevant companies. Secondly, I think we need to work to turn the above perception around. People say that proprietary brands are needed to get a job as employers only want proprietary skillsets. On the other side, employers need to purchase proprietary software because there is nobody skilled in alternatives. One of these must be wrong, as they can't both be true at the same time. I think the public is being duped by the vendors who want people to actually believe that their brands are required. They are opposed to real competition (likely recognizing that they would loose against FLOSS if put on equal footing). They are even willing to use trivially bogus statistics in order to 'proove' that alternatives don't exist, and that they are being harmed. IE: See: http://www.flora.ca/russell/drafts/consumer-license-study.html Consumer license study: software "piracy", free software, and economic impacts I also think educators need to realize that it is better to teach general skills than a brand, especially given the version of the brand will change by the time people get out in the workforce. It is better to learn how to "word process" and "access an SQL database", than to learn Microsoft Office or Oracle. In fact, is is probably better to learn the FLOSS equivalents as these allow the students to bring everything with them (legally) to their home and future employment. Their future employment may be within their own community, where the self-reliance and independance of the employer is as important as with the employee. --- Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/> See http://weblog.flora.ca/ for announcements, activities, and opinions ALERT! ISP Licensing! http://weblog.flora.org/article.php3?story_id=273 MS Win/Office assault http://weblog.flora.org/article.php3?story_id=294
