[Imc-tech] Prioritizing Tech Needs

[David Young]

Regarding desires for the IMC computer lab:

I would like for people to be able to do research on the Web.  However,
I think that if all they can do is download, download, download,
then you may as well have put TVs in for all the good it's going to do
anyone. So the second thing that I'd like for people to be able to do is
self-publish. And thirdly, communicate by e-mail, especially with people
who they could not communicate with otherwise. So that IMC doesn't become
a chat nexus, I think people should be discouraged from using AIM, ICQ,
or IRC at IMC.

This might not be practical, but I do not think IMC should offer
the MS Office suite on the lab computers. MS Office is entirely too
complicated, it gets harder to use in every version, and supporting
baffled users will deplete IMC energy and time.  I am *really* worried
about computers depleting organization's time. (Productivity paradox
and all.  I've read that most not-for-profits cannot support more than
about a dozen computers, and I think Microsoft's ridiculous software
has a lot to do with that.)  I think there is probably a simple but
effective Mac word processor that is designed on a human scale; maybe
there is one for Windows, too. I will do some research on this.

Excuse the buzzword, but I would like for people to be able to do
"single-source publishing" at the IMC. That is, let them produce one
text with photos, illustrations, and audio. Let them print the text and
then photocopy it a zillion times, or put it onto the IMC Web site, but
it's the same source document, no complicated conversions necessary. I
don't think this should involve steep learning curves and prices, but
I don't know if any company makes software for this that isn't hard to
use and expensive.

Dave

On Fri, May 04, 2001 at 03:54:47PM -0500, stephen seth davis wrote:
> > I like the idea of iMacs as our public use stations -- they're quiet,
> > compact, and relatively easy to maintain.  For other things like DTP,
> > server, a/v editing, I think we need good, cheap, powerful PCs with basic
> > interchangeable parts (they could all have the same basic motherboard,
> > videocard, etc.), that can all run linux or win2k, depending on application.
> 
>   (Kindly excuse a newcomer for pestering the list with questions, as this
>    may already have been given some consideration...)
> 
>   What is the range of services to be supported on the public use
> machines?  It makes a world of difference as to what needs to be taken
> care of in the hardware and software domains.  Is the idea just to provide
> a number of public internet terminals for people to use inform themselves,
> or is the expectation here to provide a full-service lab where people can
> come and work on stuff from the outside?  (Like MS Word/Excel/blah...)
> If you go with all Macs, aesthetically keen as they may be, there will
> be the annoyance of having to explain to users why MS Whatever2KX is not
> installed/available/supported.  But on the Windows side, a lot of the
> prairienet donations (that I looked at, anyway) would be hard-pressed to
> run modern Microsoft OSes - maybe 95/98 would be okay on a few.  They
> might, however, make decent diskless X terminals, with all apps running on a
> big(ger) linux machine hidden in a closet - but this is only really an
> option if the intent is to concentrate on internet access.
> 
> 
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-- 
David Young                   On the Job Consulting
dyoung at onthejob.net     Urbana, IL * (217) 278-3933