never mind the research

[waider]

Via Eric (bitpuddle), via Dave, here's Phil: MIT's open courseware site. Neither Dave nor Eric actually comment much on it. For me, as an open source developer, the scariest part of Phil's comment is not the outsourcing, or the fact that "The more sophisticated portion of ocw.mit.edu is a 100 percent Microsoft show", but the reason for the latter fact:

"We read a Gartner Group report that said the Microsoft system was the simplest to use among the commercial vendors and that open-source toolkits weren't worth considering."

Someone commented that a lot of people use Gartner reports to make decisions, and that us whiny people should just get used to it; I find that worrying - whenever I've had to make a technology decision in the past, I've used that sort of thing to inform decisions, not make them outright. And I'd certainly feel a little discomfort at signing over a couple of million based on a single report...

Comments

[bitpuddle.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is that if you actually read much of the Gartner stuff, they really make a huge deal about open source in general, and Linux in particular.

I think, though, if you are looking at a content management system, you have two choices (maybe three): 1) get a bunch of smart people and cobble together a system from independent pieces, or 2) get a bunch of Microsoft people and use Sharepoint.

Going the Microsoft way can be easier, as long as the system is made of all Microsoft components. Going the OSS or best-of-breed way requires a great deal more brainpower. I generally expect that line of thinking (one vendor) from corporations, but I'm a little surprised by MIT's choice.

[wisn.livejournal.com]

My thought was:

"This is MIT. Other schools have rocket scientists, but they invented rocket science. What are they doing dropping cash for a Gartner report when they should be tasking some undergrads to spec and build a system? Have they become that detached from their tradition of ingenious problem solving?"

[wisn.livejournal.com]

...come to think of it, Ars Digita was the result of various comunity and CMS packages Greenspun had written gratis while at MIT.

[bitpuddle.livejournal.com]

Yup -- that Phil Greenspun.