Re: [Micronet] Mac workaround for federal grant applications on grants.gov

At 8:49 AM -0800 2/17/06, Aron Roberts wrote:
> From our Apple Systems Engineer, Wyn Davies:
>
>> For folks submitting grant proposals to www.grants.gov, there is now
>>a Mac workaround to the Windows-only grant submission system. Check
>>out:
>>
>> http://www.grants.gov/MacSupport
>
> Please share this information with Macintosh-using researchers and
>units within your department.

There are some recent comments on Macintouch.com about the grants.gov
implementation of Mac support:

<http://macintouch.com/newsrecent.shtml#tip.2006.02.15.grants>

Some who have tried to use the grants.gov procedure point to the
University of Wisconsin's solution (at least the documentation of the
process) as superior to the government's own:

Grants.gov for Mac OS X (University of Wisconsin)
<http://apple.doit.wisc.edu/grants.gov/>

>Background
>----------
>This is important, because many federal agencies now require that
>grant applications be submitted via the Grants.gov website. From a
>description on that website:
>
>> Grants.gov [provides] a simple, unified electronic storefront for
>>interactions between grant applicants and the Federal agencies that
>>manage grant funds. There are 26 Federal grant-making agencies and
>>over 900 individual grant programs that award over $400 billion in
>>grants each year.
>
> A description of the status of the Macintosh workaround and the
>ultimate development of a cross-platform solution, from the
>Grants.gov website:
>
>> Grants.gov currently uses a Windows-only solution for electronic
>>grant submission. The PureEdge viewer is required to complete grant
>>application packages and, at this time, there is no native
>>Macintosh PureEdge client.
>>
>> IBM has acquired PureEdge, and now calls the product IBM
>>Workplace Forms; IBM plans to add Mac support in the future and
>>Grants.gov has committed to providing a cross-platform solution by
>>November 2006. In the interim, Grants.gov, in conjunction with NIH,
>>has created a Citrix server solution that allows Mac OS X users to
>>complete their application packages using Mac OS X.
>>
>> The University of Wisconsin has created a single preconfigured
>>package for Mac OS X users to access this solution. ...
>
> And finally, an overview of this situation in a recent Washington
>Post article, which mentions that at least a few users are
>experiencing problems using either the Citrix workaround or the new
>system itself:
>
>Rick Weiss
>"New Grant System Excludes Mac Users:
>Electronic Forms Compatible Only With Microsoft
>Washington Post
>Monday, February 13, 2006, p. A19
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/12/AR2006021200942.htm

This URL didn't work when I tried it. Here's a link to a printable version:

New Grant System Excludes Mac Users
Electronic Forms Compatible Only With Microsoft
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/12/AR2006021200942_pf.html>

-- 
Glen Ozawa
IB Computing Support
gleno@LS.Berkeley.EDU
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following was automatically added to this message by the list server:
For information about MAGNet, its meetings and events, and its
mailing list, including information on subscribing and unsubscribing,
see the MAGNet Web site at <http://magnet.berkeley.edu/>.