call to arms

[Jeff Kinz]

On Mon, Dec 05, 2005 at 03:18:09PM -0500, Ed Lawson wrote:
> On Mon, 5 Dec 2005 14:16:41 -0500
> Jeff Kinz <jkinz at kinz.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> > One additional point:
> > 
> > Since Open Source is much more inclined to add features WITHOUT
> > requiring a "corporate giants" style economic justification its
> quite
> > possible that the accessability issue can be one place
> (feature set)
> > where FOSS can be completely superior to proprietary products.
> 
> > 
> > This makes FOSS accessibility a major strategic advantage for
> FOSS and 
> 
> 
> Seems to me the issue now is for FOSS to somehow develop
> accessibility features that currently exist in proprietary
> software.  While Gnome has done some good work in this area, the
> reality is FOSS simply is not anywhere near where it needs to be
> just to be roughly equal to proprietary software.
> 
> For now, most FOSS is at a great disadvantage in this area and is
> not a viable option. Long way to go before it can be seen as
> competitive let alone having an advantage.


I hear you saying that FOSS is currently behind proprietary software in
accessibility features.  True in the majority sense but not in the
binary sense.

More importantly accessibility is the one area where FOSS can attain a
major competitive and strategic advantage. Which means this is an area
where a unified, coherent effort, led by a clean, well thought out design 
real rewards for Linux/FOSS market share.




Wait, did I just say "unified, coherent effort" and "Linux" in the same
sentence?

Never mind.  ;-)


-- 
Jeff Kinz, Emergent Research, Hudson, MA.
speech recognition software may have been used to create this e-mail