Update: Grants.gov Mac Discrimination

I received a letter from Senator Kent Conrad today with, hopefully, some good news regarding the federal government's discrimination of mac users in the submission of grant applications. According to Senator Conrad, "grants.gov is aware of the problem and is working to fix the issue". Continue on to read the entire letter. I have also heard back from an employee from the Research Computing Higher Education group at Apple who assures me that senior execs at Apple have now become "acutely aware of this issue" in response to my inquiry. Please spread the word and let's make some changes! WRITE TO YOUR LEGISLATORS. Thanks.

<UPDATE: Senator Barbara Boxer responds to the inquiry from a constituent in California>

Dear Gregory,

Thank you for contacting me about grant applications. It was good to hear from you.

You mentioned your concerns about the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) grant application process. Specifically, you point out that the Pure Edge software used by grants.gov, the HHS grant processing site, is not easily compatible with Macintosh or Linux computer operating systems. In response to your inquiry a member of my staff contacted grants.gov to inquire about options for non-Microsoft users. I have been informed that grants.gov is aware of the problem and is working to fix the issue.

I certainly understand how the requirement to use Pure Edge could put users of other operating systems at a disadvantage in applying for grants. The federal government should not be requiring proprietary software of any one company over another for grant submissions and applications. Individuals should be free to submit their applications on the software system of their choice, or HHS and grants.gov should develop an alternate way of downloading grant applications for users who do not use operating systems compatible with Pure Edge.

Again, thank you for contacting me. For information on additional issues of importance to North Dakota, please visit my website at www.conrad.senate.gov.

Sincerely,

KENT CONRAD
United States Senate

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Posted: Tue - April 19, 2005 at 11:42 AM, In Category:


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