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Challenge to Transfer IT Power in MA

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the a-corrupt-committee-is-always-better dept.

Andy Updegrove writes "Linda Hamel, the General Counsel of the Massachusetts department that is struggling to establish ODF for state use, has prepared a challenge to those in the State Senate that would strip State CIO Peter Quinn of his power to set IT policy. Her analysis graphically describes why a task force of political appointees has no business telling more than 2000 IT professionals what to do."

9 of 243 comments (clear)

  1. The whole enchilada... by Cherita+Chen · · Score: 5, Informative
    Peter Korn of Sun Microsystems has put together a very impressive collection of data and analysis on the ODF controversy on his blog site. Definitly worth a look if you wish to get the full story...

    http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/korn/LargePrintWe blog/20051113

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  2. Re:Abandon all hope... by greenguy · · Score: 2, Informative

    While it's true that Microsoft does not meet the textbook definition of a monopoly (being the sole seller), no one questions that they dominate the market to the point where they distort it. Adam Smith himself was very concerned about any firm that controlled more than 40% of the market, because it could use its weight to control prices unfairly. So, not being a monopoly in the strict sense hardly means that Microsoft is just another player in a free market.

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  3. Re:As a MA resident.... by evilviper · · Score: 5, Informative
    It is a pdf. It was not authored as a fill-in form and as far as I can tell it is not editable in any way (I made a half hearted attempt with a full version of Adobe 5)

    You have several options...

    On Windows you can use the free Foxit PDF reader, which allows you to write text overlayed on PDFs, and allows you to print the results. I would suggest printing to file, with any postscript (PS) print driver, then convert to PDF with ghostscript, ps2pdf.com, acrobat distiller, etc.

    On Unix or Windows, you can open PDFs using GIMP, and add in text like you would with any image. Then you can convert the images to a big PDF document if you like.

    Personally, I would use something like pdf2html (requires ghostscript), and edit the resulting HTML document. From there you can decide if you want to return it as HTML, or convert it back into PDF.
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  4. Re:Abandon all hope... by siddesu · · Score: 2, Informative

    my 2 yen ... excuse me, but Microsoft wasn't convicted for "monopoly". monopoly could be legal. they were convicted for defending their monopolistic position with illegal means. you can read more here: http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f4400/4469.htm and i thought everyone knew that ...

  5. Re:Can't follow article? by NickFortune · · Score: 2, Informative
    It's trying to say that regardless of the merits of OpenDocument and of the folly of remaining tied to a proprietory file format, it is nevertheless foolish to remove the power to make IT decisions from someone recruited because of his understanding of the field, and to place it the hands of a committee of political appointees and industry reps.

    This is based both on Quinn being better qualified to make the such decisons than most of the comittee, and on the inefficiency and potential dangers involved in delaying critical actions until an eight body committee can all clear a slot in their schedules and debate the issue. Especially bearing in mind that these people all have other full time jobs. For the detailed arguments, you'll need to read Linda Hamel's brief, linked to from TFA.

    Finally, uopdegrove questions the sanity of implementing such a system. And I have to say that so do I

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  6. Re:Where are the graphs? by orcrist · · Score: 2, Informative

    graphically: ...
    2 usually graphic a : marked by clear lifelike or vividly realistic description b : vividly or plainly shown or described

    Funny thing about language... some words obtain non-literal meanings (also known as metaphors) over time. Go figure...

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  7. Re:Opinion vs. opinion by peragrin · · Score: 2, Informative

    Um MA did do all that. They wrote specifications, and told MSFT that there format doesn't fit the mold. PDF is also supported. Since Adobe allows third parties to build readers and writers for PDF they are considered open enough to be allowed. MSFT's license doesn't allow for GPL, or basically any other open source developer to write a compatible program and then distribute it. It specifically denies re-distribution of the source ode used to create such program. If MSFT's license was as open as Adobe's PDF's then this would be a non issue. As such MSFT is playing i want it my way only and your way is unacceptable to me. This alone should preclude them from ever doing business again. It's not up to the contractor to tell the people who hired them how to do it.

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  8. Re:This question seems obvious, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Small, as in 13th largest by population? Granted, 6.4 million doesn't really compare with CA's 35.9, but small? (http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0004986.html)

  9. Mod this up by shis-ka-bob · · Score: 2, Informative

    This is clearly a case of state Seantors attempting to alter the executive branch's good faith efforts to run IT in the interests of the citizens. So mod this up, the grandparent post was wrong to blame the executive branch.

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