Slashdot Mirror
International Call for Open Standards
tengu1sd writes "The New York Times is carrying a report urging nations to adopt open-information technology standards as 'a vital step to accelerate economic growth, efficiency and innovation'. Sponsored by The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, it also points out that 'open technology standards - the digital equivalent of a common gauge for railroad tracks - are not the same thing as open-source software. Open source is a development model for software in which code is freely shared and improved by a cooperative network of programmers'. This leaves room for companies willing to accept standards, but closes the door to companies unwilling to play nice."
Office might be a "standard", it is not an OPEN standard. As long as Microsoft controls it, it will never be open.
You can mostly cut and paste this letter for sending to your local government leaders regarding web standards.
http://narnia.dnsalias.org/freegovernment/
One way or another, politely bring up the issue and mention the benefits from the government's point of view: serving people, long-term savings, etc.
MP3 isn't open, it's just available for license.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
But, the European Economic Area (a related but politically separate entity) now has a standard for inter-national criminal and citizenry database access (the Italian police can find out that a British holidaymaker they've stopped for speeding is known to her local police as a streetwalker... but I'm sure they'd never use such powers for any nefarious purposes). This standardisation is only _obligatory_ for countries that have eliminated their border controls, but the UK agreed to provide database access anyway.
/much/ cheaper for everyone outside the US. Some estimates suggested that the US has wasted already /several times/ more money on special paper handling than it would have cost to convert their homes and industries to the A series papers.
Or more usefully, the CE safety mark uses unified standards so that electrical equipment, bedding, toys etc. tested as safe in Belgium can be sold as safe in Scotland, or Italy. This reduces costs for producers, and the saving is passed on to customers.
The ISO paper standard makes it