[Fsf-friends] No Plans for MS University

[Amol Hatwar]

Vikram Vincent wrote:
> Hello,
>
> On 17/07/07, Pramode C.E. <pramode_ce at yahoo.co.in> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> http://www.abhishekkant.net/2007/07/microsoft-computer-varsity-at-bangalore.html#links 
>>
>>
>
> Even if this specific threat has disappeared we should be prepared for 
> such
> situations in the future.
>
There is no need to prepare, if we are ready to set things right that
is... When it comes to IT/Technology education,
IMHO the decision makers need to concentrate on the following:
1. Industry Acceptance of the Syallabi and tools used, (More or Less) -
That takes care of legacy stuff like Pascal/Fortran/Cobol and TC++. We
don't want people to design spaceships using slide-rules
2. Use Vendor Neutral Tools - This ensures skills can be easily applied
to varying platforms.
3. Focus on Open Standards and Free & Open Source software wherever
possible. - This takes care of longevity of skills against so called
"planned obsolence".

This seems to be a clear win-win for both the Community, Industry,
Students and the Educational Systems as a whole. My yardstick simply
being: everyone gets more for less (money and time spent). But on the
other hand it raises a host of other problems related to people
resisting change that are better documented here:

http://www.lambdassociates.org/blog/hackers.htm

In such cases of deadlock, it is much better for the governing machinery
to make a policy and push the policy through.

Well, those were my two cents. But I'll be interested in volunteering to
make this happen.

Amol Hatwar