Copyright and subscription info at end of message. As Nathan explains, if Microsoft succeeds in capturing the campus software market, it could effectively turn our state university systems into private workforce training programs. To help students mobilize against Microsoft's campus software deals, NetAction intern Mitch Stoltz has created a Campus Action Tool Kit, with samples of letters and petitions, a flyer which can be printed for campus distribution, and tips for campus organizing.
Few students are likely to pay the full price for any competitor's package.
De facto, the Texas state government has just handed Microsoft a monopoly over software in the state's university system. Which is odd given the fact that state governments recently sued Microsoft for antitrust violations. And even odder given the fact that Microsoft has publicly deplored government interference in consumer decisions, yet here it is making deal after deal to have governments interfere with student decisions over technology choices. Here is where government intervenes in all sorts of ways, where the prices of software careen wildly from retail levels, and where companies battle today to control the minds of the workforce of tomorrow. And the danger is that Microsoft is using strategic monopolistic pricing in the education market, with the government's assistance, to turn our state university systems into private workforce training programs for Microsoft.