toggle

AAPL Stock: 562.29 ( -3.03 )

Grants.gov Mac support questioned

updated 11:05 am EDT, Thu September 14, 2006

Grants.gov , Mac support


Grumman -- the company responsible for handling the Grants.gov system which allows Windows users to submit grant proposals online -- has lost its contract with the government, begging the question of whether Mac users will remain in the cold before the company picks up to leave on November 1st. The Department of Health and Human Services -- a central manager of the Grants.gov system -- assured Mac users that by November the system would support their needs, according to The Washington Post. The statement was based on promises made by Grumman, leaving Mac users wondering if support will arrive before the company moves on. "That's a question we have," Grants.gov program manager John Etcheverry said. Grumman reportedly delivered its first attempt at a Mac-compatible version of its grant application, which is said to be "early" but "working."


by MacNN Staff

print
email
(5)

TAGS :

 Apple

Related Articles

Recent Articles

toggle

Comments

  1. jpellino

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Oct 1999

    0
    09/14, 11:31am | report spam | Reply |

    surely you mean

    raising the question.

    Additionally, if you don't use grants.gov for NSF and instead use their own FastLane service, it works great with a Mac, and you can do everything, whereas some NSF functions are not yet available at grants.gov.

  1. lmhaffner

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Apr 2002

    0
    09/14, 12:36pm | report spam | Reply |

    But...

    We hear here that even NSF is migrating over to grants.gov during this year. The only "solution" I've heard batted around is Citrix, but I don't know if this is Grumman's solution or our university's.

    Frankly, I can't believe this whole thing was allowed in this day and age. Fastlane is still butt-ugly, but they made great strides from only accepting properly formatted PDFs to accepting a ton of document formats with their own post-processing producing uniform output. A standards-compliant browser, on any platform should be all that's required of any government submission/application. What happened to accessibility requirements???

  1. mudmonkey

    Dedicated MacNNer

    Joined: Jan 2000

    0
    09/14, 12:49pm | report spam | Reply |

    NSF

    I have had my share of frustration in NSF's "slowlane" but it is FAR superior to this grants.gov c***. I realize that they need to streamline the process, and I agree; however, with the NIS funding only 9% of new applications, this just seems like a filter to try and reduce the number of applications to begin with.

  1. Albert

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: May 2003

    0
    09/14, 02:40pm | report spam | Reply |

    Pathetic RACEST BIAS

    The govt is behaving in its normal racest manner; doesnt suprise me on bit. Citrix is not a mac solution; these agencies should be sued for bias and executives within should be strung up on light poles!! This is criminal activity and should be treated as such; racest bias should not be allowed to persist.

  1. Prospero

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Sep 2006

    0
    09/14, 03:40pm | report spam | Reply |

    More details on this news

    We're a company focused on federal grants management. We do not work for Grants.gov, although our customer's systems interface with them. We have been maintaining a blog discussion about this news and the history of Grants.gov and Macs. You can read all about it at http://blog.tcg.com/tcg/grants_management/index.html.

    The bottom line is that Grants.gov made some technology choices several years ago that now require them to move to different (but no less complicated) technologies, e.g. from PureEdge to Adobe Acrobat. There are good reasons behind these events -- the blog has more details -- but I agree that the outcomes are not equitable or ideal.

    lmhaffner: The Citrix solution was first proposed by the NIH and then adopted by the Grants.gov project management office (not Grumman). Regarding accessibility requirements: I agree, and so does Grants.gov, which may be one reason why they're moving to Adobe which has a better record in this regard.

    Mudmonkey: The government wants to give away all the money it can -- really, it does! This is not a conspiracy to reduce the number of applications. Grants.gov and all federal agencies are actually graded by OMB based largely on how many applications have been funneled through Grants.gov. They have every incentive to make this work well for you and other applicants.

    Albert: Accusing Grants.gov of "racest bias" is both inaccurate (in accusation and spelling) and inflammatory. Please try to understand the real issues before accusing anyone of criminal behavior.

Login Here

Not a member of the MacNN forums? Register now for free.

 
close
Photo
toggle

Network Headlines

toggle

Most Popular

MacNN Sponsor

Recent Reviews

iHome iW2 AirPlay speaker

iHome generally isn't known as a luxury brand when it comes to audio, but it is prolific -- the company's docks and speakers are every ...

Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover

One of the iPad's main weaknesses has always been productivity. It's not a question of apps; while it has taken a little time for a na ...

Logitech UE Air Speaker

If maybe a little more slowly than Apple would like, AirPlay is becoming a staple of the wireless speaker market for iOS devices. The ...

toggle

Most Commented

 

Popular News