[Athen] The Thoughts of Chairman Bill

[Robert Martinengo]

Pratik,

Other than Bill Gates' status at Microsoft, and his publishing acumen,
or lack thereof, do you disagree with what he said, and if so, how?

Bob


On Nov 17, 2007 11:36 PM, Pratik Patel <pratikp1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> 1. Bill Gates is no longer really in charge of Microsoft.  He's not running

> the company strategy.  Different age, different uses of company's funds,

> etc.  I don't think this is the right forum to discuss that though.

>

> 2.  Bill wasn't in the publishing business.  That's quite obvious by the

> Microsoft Reader Fiasco.  So he shouldn't be taken as an authority on

> publishing, mainstream technologies, and the publishing  convergence.

>

> Pratik Patel

> Director, IT Access. Director, PeopleTech.

> The City University of New York

>

>

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On

> Behalf Of Robert Martinengo

> Sent: Saturday, November 17, 2007 10:50 AM

> To: Access Technologists in Higher Education Network

> Subject: [Athen] The Thoughts of Chairman Bill

>

> The Microsoft/DAISY press release reminded me of something Bill Gates

> said a few years ago. I transcribed this from audio files posted on

> the DAISY website, although I don't think they are still there. I am

> posting it now because it provides a counterpoint to the 'save as

> DAISY' announcement, but of course, your interpretation may vary:

>

> "I don't think that having the mainstream and DAISY be two separate

> things makes sense, to be honest, and so I think there must be an

> approach where you take whatever's good about DAISY and have it be

> done through XML markup, that's just a fundamental piece. DAISY

> apparently has certain types of tagging or approaches that are

> interesting. The kind of navigation you want to get across these text

> materials shouldn't be unique, so we need to really look at DAISY and

> look at what the mainstream publishing standards are and see if we

> can't bridge that, to the point where, should DAISY have to exist as a

> thing of itself, or is it just a flavor of mainstream standards? I

> think DAISY is a good thing but I don't see it, if it just exists by

> itself, creating the right dynamic that we need here."

>

> -- Bill Gates at Microsoft Summit on Libraries for the Blind, November

> 2004, Redmond, Washington [Transcribed from audio]

>

> Here is a quote from a report on the meeting on the DAISY website:

>

> ' Gates partnership has particular meaning to the DAISY consortium,

> according to Stephen King, of the Royal National Institute of the

> Blind, and a member of the DAISY board of directors. "We now have a

> clear commitment to move DAISY standards into mainstream publishing,"

> said King. '

>

> http://www.daisy.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsId=172

>

> So, creating a 'save as DAISY' plug-in - a move into the mainstream,

> or a perpetuation of DAISY as 'a thing of itself'? Discuss...

>

> _______________________________________________

> Athen mailing list

> Athen at athenpro.org

> http://athenpro.org/mailman/listinfo/athen_athenpro.org

>

>

> _______________________________________________

> Athen mailing list

> Athen at athenpro.org

> http://athenpro.org/mailman/listinfo/athen_athenpro.org

>