Comments on: More Mac Incompatibility with Grants.gov http://www.robfay.com/2005/11/18/more-mac-incompatibility-with-grantsgov/ Rob Fay is a user experience architect making sense of an information age. He is passionate about the "I" in IT and strives to evangelize that information is a resource on equal footing with an organization's human, financial, and physical resources. Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:36:14 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Rob Fay http://www.robfay.com/2005/11/18/more-mac-incompatibility-with-grantsgov/comment-page-1/#comment-1006 Rob Fay Thu, 08 Dec 2005 18:50:54 +0000 http://robfay.com/2005/11/18/more-mac-compatibility-with-grantsgov/#comment-1006 I've submitted a few grants.gov applications in the past, only because the university I worked at required approval and submission by the central administration instead of direct submission by the PIs. It's wasn't too painful, but it was not intuitive either. What I dislike is that you can only check preliminary submission status at grant.gov, then you must go to the agency to check the status of the application. I do understand part of the reason to use PureEdge. It allows for offline work to get necessary data elements into the proper XML format. The powers that be rightly knew that some persons may not always have constant (high speed) internet connectivity. On the other hand, a reliance on a proprietary product not available for all platforms seems preposterous to me. What is the lesser of two evils - requiring an internet connection or requiring the use of a proprietary product? I’ve submitted a few grants.gov applications in the past, only because the university I worked at required approval and submission by the central administration instead of direct submission by the PIs.

It’s wasn’t too painful, but it was not intuitive either. What I dislike is that you can only check preliminary submission status at grant.gov, then you must go to the agency to check the status of the application.

I do understand part of the reason to use PureEdge. It allows for offline work to get necessary data elements into the proper XML format. The powers that be rightly knew that some persons may not always have constant (high speed) internet connectivity.

On the other hand, a reliance on a proprietary product not available for all platforms seems preposterous to me.

What is the lesser of two evils – requiring an internet connection or requiring the use of a proprietary product?

]]> By: Thom Hughes http://www.robfay.com/2005/11/18/more-mac-incompatibility-with-grantsgov/comment-page-1/#comment-1005 Thom Hughes Thu, 08 Dec 2005 18:18:18 +0000 http://robfay.com/2005/11/18/more-mac-compatibility-with-grantsgov/#comment-1005 At first I too was concerned with the Mac compatability issue. Many of us in the scientific community use Macs, and it is hard to imagine why we would have to go out and by windows boxes just to submit grants. Well, I just used the grants.gov system for the first time to submit a grant, using a windows machine, and I have this to report. Don't worry about the system not working on your mac. It doesn't work on a windows machine either. It is truly the most wretched system I have ever had to struggle with. Who ever decided to use this system has single handedly set biomedical research back at least a year. At first I too was concerned with the Mac compatability issue. Many of us in the scientific community use Macs, and it is hard to imagine why we would have to go out and by windows boxes just to submit grants. Well, I just used the grants.gov system for the first time to submit a grant, using a windows machine, and I have this to report. Don’t worry about the system not working on your mac. It doesn’t work on a windows machine either. It is truly the most wretched system I have ever had to struggle with. Who ever decided to use this system has single handedly set biomedical research back at least a year.

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