Posted by
Frank Warmerdam on
May 04, 2006; 2:11pm
URL: http://civicaccess.416.s1.nabble.com/Canada-Census-on-line-tp525p537.html
Grignon, Alain wrote:
> Richard,
>
> I may be way off base here, and please step in if I am but I believe the
> Linux debate/browser compatibility doesn't fall within the scope of
> CivicAccess. At least as I understand it.
Alain / Richard,
Given my understanding of the Civic Access mandate I also think this
is out of scope. In my humble opinion, when launching an effort like
Civic Access it is very beneficial to retain a focus on a core mission.
Alain and I are also involved in the Open Source Geospatial Foundation
where "mission creep" has been a bit of an issue. :-)
> Also, if I may play the devils advocate, Stats Can is providing paper
> copies to everyone as an alternative. What is important is that the
> "ability to submit your data" be accessible to all.. That doesn't
> necessarily mean it has to be accessible to all browser types/Oses. Anyone
> try using BeOS? Unix? Somewhere a line must be drawn in order to allow
> government web services to evolve. Being a public servant myself, I graple
> with these issues daily. There is a balance to be truck between making
> things accessible and keeping inline with current technologies.
Having said that this isn't an issue that Civic Access should address, I
would like to say browser/os/version specific web applications from
governments, banks, and other organization piss me off to no end. It makes
my blood boil! The point of HTTP, HTML, etc is that it doesn't matter
what damn OS/brower/hardware/species is at the other end of the
connection as long as it speaks the standard protocols properly.
I would claim that StatsCan ought to be encouraged to stick to web
standards. It should be more than sufficient to fill out a bunch of census
forms. But I just don't think that Civic Access should be taking on that
task. Lets focus on getting maximal access to the stats can data after
it has been collected! (well, within the limits of privacy restrictions
of course)
Best regards,
--
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