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.go
v/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://app
le.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.washington
post.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/12/AR2006021200942_p
f.html>


-- 
Glen Ozawa
IB Computing Support
glenoLS.Berkeley.EDU

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