Yes, the software can only be used on Macs using one of the work arounds I described above. Again, I don’t think it’s the best solution to require platform specific software, but they are working on supporting Macs, there are work arounds in place (which in my experience are fairly simple to use), so I don’t see what the fuss is about. In 9 months (or whenever Macs are supported) it will be a non-issue anyways.

I have not had a chance to check out the site from my Mac Mini, so I assumed that people were not able to do the grant management functions on a Mac or Linux box. I apologize, I guess I misinterpretted what you said. However, if they are relying on proprietary, non-standard software, it’s still a major problem.

Go look! http://www.grants.gov…it‘s free and open to all to examine the process. Hell, you could even try it out yourself, I’m sure you are eligible to apply for some grant or other. They use some software (PureEdge Viewer, developers of which were recently acquired by IBM I think) to download, complete, and submit the applications electronically.

The Citrix method logs into their server directly, and is free.

I assumed that “grants.gov” meant that it was a web site that accepted grants. Is that not what’s going on? Did they really develop their own Windows application for this purpose? If so, that’s even stupider than I thought.

As for the Citrix method, that involves logging in remotely to a Windows box, right? Which means you have to have a Windows box to log into…

MikeT, The article doesn’t go into the greatest depth about the exactly how the application process works, but the problems for Mac users have nothing to do with the website not being compatible for them.

As it happens, I work in a major research department, and have worked with scientists preparing applications using Mac’s with no problems at all, using both the Citrix method and VirtualPC. Sure it’s a teensy bit more work than using a PC, but nothing mind bogglingly prohibitive.

Again, I agree with your sentiments about formats, but in this case, I don’t think they are, as you state “requiring someone to acquire a particular operating system or web browser in order to participate in a government program.” If there were no workarounds or efforts to accomodate Mac’s, then sure, it’s inexcusable.

Also, how exactly does your bit about designing websites for PC’s and Mac’s fit into this?

I’m talking about formats, not applications. I’m perfectly fine with the government using proprietary applications as long as the formats they use are open.

I don’t think the government should ever make Microsoft Word a required format for its interactions with the general public. It’s fine if they want to accept documents in Word format in addition to an open format, such as .pdf or .html.

Flash is an interesting case. To be honest, I’m not sure if it’s an open standard or not. Still, there are flash players available for all major platforms, and they work quite consistently, so Flash is certainly closer to an open standard than, say, ActiveX. Also, I’m having trouble imagining a case in which government business required the use of flash functionality.