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Acting MA CIO Appointed, ODF A Go
Andy Updegrove writes "Massachusetts has appointed ITD COO Beth Pepoli as the acting CIO of the Commonwealth. At the same time, the Governor's Communications Director, Eric Fehrnstrom, has made the clearest statement yet that it is ODF that the new CIO will be implementing: 'There have been no changes in the commonwealth's published OpenDocument rules, and we are still on track for a January 2007 implementation.' We reported on the resignation of Peter Quinn in December.
I didn't RTFA, but FWIW, ODF was nearly FUBAR.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
This just in; the BRG is MK in the PRTW while the outgoing CTA is now fully assumed to be BFPLF.
Can someone provide a quick summary of what ODF means for MA, and a timeline of events that has led up to this story so far? I keep seeing it mentioned, and yet no one ever goes into detail about why it matters.
I'm sure I can't be the only one here who finds the continual blurring of lines between "state"/"country" and "corporation" a bit unnerving.
With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
Groklaw has the skinny, and a comprehensive history.
What it means for the commonwealth of Massachusetts: sovereingity.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
"Acting MA CIO Appointed, ODF A Go"
I need help! I understood that!!!
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
I need help! I understood that!!!
I think it could have used another 'Go':
"Acting MA CIO Appointed, ODF A Go Go"
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
How's Stalin and his Free Software Movement?
If you'd of read the FAQ and TPS Report you'd be ITK and not MIA.
If big boobed women work at Hooters do one legged women work at IHOP?
"Excuse me, sir. Seeing as how the V.P. is such a V.I.P., shouldn't we keep the P.C. on the Q.T.? 'Cause if it leaks to the V.C. he could end up M.I.A., and then we'd all be put out in K.P."
It's "no one," not "noone." Who the hell is noone anyway?
OpenDocument is a published set of standards for office-type documents.
This differs from the Microsoft Office formats in that they're fully documented, legally unencumbered, and reasonably easy to make use of (something the MS Office formats are, in spite of repeated claims of being "open", have never actually been in any substantive way.)
This is important to the Commonwealth (= State) of Massachusetts as it recognizes it will need to be able to read it's digital files for decades, indeed centuries, into the future. MS Office and like applications have proven to be unable to read documents written by versions only a few years old.
However it is hoped that by adopting a non-commercially-controlled standard files will be able to be read by applications yet undeveloped, from any vendor or source, without legal complexity.
The other advantage is this also "levels the playing field" for all other applications by breaking the MS Office Format lock, and will thus enable government entities and those they interact with with stop paying the "Microsoft Tax".
Microsoft has complained that this format excludes their products. It doesn't, they can develop a converter the same they have for all of the other competing formats their products read & (sometimes) write to.
Microsoft has also taken steps to get their formats also set as a standard. Whether whatever ECMA eventually publishes is actually useful is an open question but has been clearly driven by this situation.
Microsoft has also employed their PR & lobbying arms, having front organizations distribute disinformation about OpenDocument, it's effects, goals, etc.
The most visible supporter of Massachusetts adopting OpenDocument was a civil servant, Peter Quinn.
He was recently investigated for possible misuse of funds. This story received unusually prominent coverage by the leading local newspaper, on their front page.
The without-cause finding received little coverage but the employee decided he wasn't interested working under this level of personal attack and has left civil service.
The State Governor is about to run for US President and has a history of w ^H h ^H o ^H r ^H i ^H n ^H g accepting campaign contributions from interested parties, then making dubious appointments and policies.
It was widely suspected the Governor would be announce a convenient policy change after Peter Quinn left (costs to run for President!)
This story is that the policy won't change. Or at least, that is the story today. How aggresively the policy is implemented is another question, or if this policy will even stand once general attention to it has waned.
The other good news is that many other levels and jurisdictions of governements have identical concerns about using MS's formats and are themselves considering alternatives, open formats, etc.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
Well, that's good to hear. I was starting to wonder if the new interm CIO would be a friend of Redmond and would start to turn MA against ODF. Good for them to stick to their principles.
It is not our abilities that show what we truly are... it is our choices.
Correct me if I am weong[sic], but ODF is only used by OOo and Suns Staroffice (which is the same thing, in a box, with phone support), so even though the format is open, which is undoubtably good, isnt it just locking into Sun because no one else reads / writes ODF?
OK, you're wrong. ODF is an open format, thus no lock-in. Anyone can and will implement it. Koffice and WordPerfect have both announced that upcoming versions of their products will support it. OpenOffice is open source, so any company can modify and sell support for it. Even MS can support the format easily, they just don't want to because the benefits it brings, like the ability to migrate easily to other formats, might not allow them to gouge customers as easily. The lock-in part of the .doc format is that no one except MS can read/write it perfectly (and not even MS between versions).
Moving to ODF is smart because it is not a lock-in. In five years when MA wants to evaluate new word processors, they can look at the features and prices of at least four different providers and choose the best fit, without worrying if they can read old files and without worrying about migration costs.
I have little doubt in my mind that AbiWord and Apple will soon support OpenDocument as well.
Take off every sig. For great justice.
Apple released the spec for their Pages and Keynote document format. It's somewhere on their developer site (I downloaded it for interest's sake the other day).
It's just a gzipped XML format - very simple to process.
It would be a simple (but not trivial) task to write a converter to ODF, and any reasonable programmer could do it in a day or two. I'm tempted to write one in RealBASIC just for fun.
Well... not a *lot* of fun, but fun nevertheless...