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From: leo@hoss.unl.edu (Leo Chouinard)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc,comp.misc
Subject: Educator discount list:  Is there/should there be one?
Message-ID: <1991Mar11.082920.7396@hoss.unl.edu>
Date: 11 Mar 91 08:29:20 GMT
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Every once in a while my department has some money to spend on software or
hardware.  Inquiring recently, however, I found that nobody on this campus
seems to have a general list of educational discounts available.  I'm
aware, of course, of Borland's educational pricing scheme.  And I've heard
of one or two others.  But there doesn't seem to be a general list on this 
campus, and if there's a list of such discounts maintained in an accessible 
format on the net, I haven't come across it.

So I was wondering whether it would make sense, given the number of 
educators that use the net, for there to be a central list of educational 
discounts (non-site-specific, i.e. of the sort that almost any educator 
in the country would be eligible for) maintained in some form on the net - 
presumably either FTP-able, or posted regularly in a newsfile, or both.  
Possibly there should even be three separate lists - one for PC/MS-DOS 
hardware and software, one for Macintosh, and one for other systems.  I'm 
an MS-DOS person myself, but we have all of the above in my department, 
and I know that's also true in many other places.

I'm relatively new to the Internet, so maybe this has been discussed
before - maybe it's even being done and I'm just not aware of it.  But if
not, it seems to me that the following questions are among the set of
potentially relevant ones:

1)  Would people find such a list (or lists) useful?  Has this been tried
before?

2)  Would the companies that offer such discounts object to such a list?
I can't see why they would, but if it decreased the inclination of companies
to offer such discounts, the list would be counterproductive.

3)  Would it be difficult to maintain such a list?  Could we assume that
pricing/policy changes with regards to educational discounts would be
easily obtainable either from educators reporting them, or in some cases
by the companies themselves passing the word on?

4)  If such a list is feasible and a good idea, what form should it take?
Should there be just one list, or several lists devoted to different
segments of the market (e.g., as discussed above)?  If several, how should 
they be subdivided?

Any feedback, positive or negative (or uncharged), is appreciated.

                                            Leo Chouinard
                                            leo@hoss.unl.edu
                                            (839 Oldfather Hall
                                             Dept. of Math. & Stat.
                                             Univ. of Nebraska - Lincoln
                                             Lincoln, NE 68588-0323)