On 7/17/07, Pramode C.E. <pramode_ce(a)yahoo.co.in> wrote: whew! just when microsoft was all set to join and bond us together for a greater cause.... okay guys, back to our usual bickering and in-fighting. [g,d,r] hehehee :-) niyam

Vikram Vincent wrote: There is no need to prepare, if we are ready to set things right that is... When it comes to IT/Technology education, IMHO the decision makers need to concentrate on the following: 1. Industry Acceptance of the Syallabi and tools used, (More or Less) - That takes care of legacy stuff like Pascal/Fortran/Cobol and TC++. We don't want people to design spaceships using slide-rules 2. Use Vendor Neutral Tools - This ensures skills can be easily applied to varying platforms. 3. Focus on Open Standards and Free & Open Source software wherever possible. - This takes care of longevity of skills against so called "planned obsolence". This seems to be a clear win-win for both the Community, Industry, Students and the Educational Systems as a whole. My yardstick simply being: everyone gets more for less (money and time spent). But on the other hand it raises a host of other problems related to people resisting change that are better documented here: http://www.lambdassociates.org/blog/hackers.htm In such cases of deadlock, it is much better for the governing machinery to make a policy and push the policy through. Well, those were my two cents. But I'll be interested in volunteering to make this happen. Amol Hatwar