Inquirer: Duke iPods = Philantrophy? 19 years, 9 months ago by Martey Dodoo

The Inquirer takes a strange angle in this article (entitled iPods will be free for wealthy kids) on yesterday's news about iPods being delivered for free to Duke University freshmen.

Giving the digital 'Duke box' away to one of the few universities where most of the kids can afford to buy them, is probably one of the most bizarre acts of philanthropism we have seen for some time.

This first sentence implies that Apple has made some exclusive deal with Duke in order to provide the iPods to the freshmen. Now, we will skip the middle two paragraphs (where the author, Nick Farrell, explains that the iPods have educational value) and read the last one:

Duke has managed the deal by spending strategic planning funds that it has set aside for one-time innovative technology purposes. It is also being helped out by Apple which has started a program called iTunes on Campus that allows colleges to obtain free institutional licences to distribute iTunes to students.

Technically, if Duke University is paying for the iPods, it is not philantrophy. And since iTunes on Campus is not Duke-specific, Apple is not "helping out." Let's look at what the university has to say:

Duke officials said the iPod distribution is part of a pilot program between Duke and Apple Computer, Inc. that will be evaluated after a year. Duke is paying for the project with strategic planning funds that it has set aside for one-time innovative technology purposes. The total cost of the project is expected to reach $500,000 or more, which includes hiring an academic computing specialist for the project, grant funding for faculty, associated research costs and the purchase of the iPods.

This deal does not sound like "philantrophy" to me, but a standard partnership between a corporation and a institution of higher learning. Perhaps Farrell's anti-Apple bias is preventing him from being objective.