On Tue, 1 May 2001, B. J. Arnold-Feret wrote:
> Note that the labor intensive aspect of the RP/research is often done by
> graduate assistants, which, as I recall, get paid almost nothing.
Hmm. They do advertising, keep the accounts, negotiate with clients?
I haven't seen that; as a prototyping client I've spoken only with
staff. From my time as a grad student, I seem to vaguely recall it
being against the rules for grad students to work on for-profit
enterprises in the university.
> If the educational institution gets tax dollars, or is supported by the
> government, it would seem to be in opposition to private firms in the same
> market, and would place private firms at a disadvantage while charging them
> through the taxation to support their competition.
I'm not saying I think it's a good idea; the purpose of educational
institutions isn't to compete with private enterprises, in this field
as in any other. We don't, after all, want to see grad students
serving their work-study time as indentured labor on assembly lines.
But then, if there were reliable below-market sources for the flavors
of RP that I can use, I'd be setting aside my personal morality and
getting all over them like a dirty shirt. It hasn't happened yet: the
academic services I've gotten quotes from haven't had super-impressive
prices, and generally haven't sounded serious.
Oh well, what do I know. My comment just amounts to: since I don't
see any advantage in buying from academic service bureaus as a client,
I don't feel threatened by them as a service bureau.
-Sheba
Bathsheba Grossman (831) 429-8224
Creative prototyping www.protoshape.com
Microsculpture microsculpture.com
Bronze sculpture bathsheba.com
For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Jan 04 2002 - 09:57:12 EET