Microsoft without Bill Gates as a full-timer might warm up eventually to open source. That’s what some optimists are speculating, especially with Steve Ballmer about to depart in the near future.
If Microsoft is less maniacal on proprietary vs. open, could that have e-book standards implications? Perhaps even to the point where Microsoft would rejoin the IDPF, the e-book standards group that it helped found? One can dream. An open source ePub reader bundled with Microsoft-distributed software?
For now, maybe I should be grateful that Gates retains various Microsoft ties. Maybe his old company can sway him and the Gates Foundation in the right direction.
The TeleRead angle: Grubby money-makers more clueful than Gates Foundation?
Interesting, wouldn’t that be? The grubby, money-making corporation ahead of the oh-so-staid nonprofit? The late William F. Buckley Jr. once suggested that Gates buy the TeleRead concept from me for $1. What a shame that Billg’s proprietary approach, especially his DRM fixation, gummed things up. I never could pursue this to the max. Not that the idea is "for sale." It’s in the public domain and builds on similar concepts.
The original TeleRead idea‘s main distinction is the comprehensive approach–everything from hardware to the digital libraries to efforts to blend them in with local schools and libraries. OLPC, alas, still hasn’t gotten that right.
The Gates Foundation’s own mistake: Downplaying home access
Meanwhile the Gates’ foundation is making another mistake—not following the TeleRead idea of encouraging home access among low-income people.
Remember, home is where children could do much of their learning, a point repeatedly made by Ken Komoski of LINCT.
To understand what’s happening—or not—reading the foundation’s 2007 report on the Web or in PDF. Web version here."We believe access to technology should always be a standard service in libraries because millions of low-income people either have no other access or have access that is too slow to run the latest applications," the report says. "Therefore, the library is the place for them to go to find work, learn about health information, stay in touch with family and friends, and in general tap into the world of information available online. In 2007, we launched a new program in support of that goal called Opportunity Online."
Nice, but how about enabling kids and parents to get online from home as well (more money for both home and library ends, please!)? Must everything be library-centered? There is a place for both approaches? Some homes just lack the quiet for focused study, but in many cases, the right e-readers at home could promote literacy among both parents and children. Remember the importance of parental role models. It’s often counterproductive to separate the two generations—one of the mistakes, by the way, of the OLPC project.
Related: Slashdot discussion on Microsoft and TeleRead item, Bill Gates’ Carnegie act: Can he be AC for real now that he is retiring from Microsoft?
Of interest to techies: Why Windows software could use a rush of fresh air, in the New York Times.
