MA Senator Decries OpenDocument Decision

An anonymous reader writes to mention a ZDNet article on Massachusetts senator Marc Pacheco's OpenDocument study. The report blasts the decision to switch to the OSS-friendly document format, saying the state's IT division didn't have the authority to make that decision and has disregarded the needs of disabled citizens. From the article: "'The process, quite frankly, was driven by one individual in a very powerful position (Kriss) issuing a memo to an individual in a less powerful position (Quinn). Then he was told to get it done and forget about any obstacles,' Pacheco said. Although OpenDocument is not yet widely used, other government entities, including Belgium, have expressed interest in OpenDocument as a standard as well."

Comments

Campaign contributions

[gvc]

Campaign finance records show that those state officials who most vocally opposed the plan received campaign contributions from Microsoft lobbyists. For instance, state Sen. Marc Pacheco, who held hearings on the move to OpenDocument Format at which he voiced opposition to the plan, received $600 in campaign contributions from Microsoft lobbyists over the past three years.

    -- http://www.cio.com/archive/040106/opensource.html? action=print

Sure, $600 is only a token, but its the thought that counts.

Re:Help for Disabilities?

[ottawanker]

.. also isn't the voice synthesizer and special screen reader and enlargers part of Windows, and not part of Microsoft Office? I have those programs installed, as they're part of the 'Accessibility Pack' or whatever?

Check out the Windows XP Accessibility Resources website:

Windows XP Accessibility Utilities:

        * Magnifier--a display utility that makes the computer screen more readable by creating a separate window that displays a magnified portion of the screen.
        * Narrator--a text-to-speech utility that reads what is displayed on the screen--the contents of the active window, menu options, or text that has been typed.
        * On-Screen Keyboard--displays a virtual keyboard on the computer screen that allows people to type data by using a pointing device or joystick.

Re:Whats all the fuss

[iggymanz]

you gotta be kidding, there's all kinds of problems reading across word processors, at my company we get plenty of unreadable documents from our government clients using Wordperfect and other non-MS stuff. We've had to install old versions of other software just to cut and paste. For legal documents, this is not acceptable, an open document specification is long overdue.

Governor's office fires back.

[AJWM]

The report at news.com also has this to say:

In response, the office of Governor Mitt Romney issued a statement on Tuesday, saying that the executive branch would continue with the standards implementation plan. "Senator Pacheco is wrong on the facts and wrong on the law. We are committed to an open-standards approach that fully takes into account all accessibility, cost and statutory requirements," said Felix Browne, an administration spokesman.

Pacheo has been on the wrong side of this for a while. I guess he figured it was time for another headline.

Re:Apples & Oranges

[El Torico]

I wouldn't be surprised to find he's getting some sort of kickback from Redmond at some level, or has a personal grudge against the IT office, or is hoping to make this into some bit of a power play.

I thought of that too, so I looked up his contributors at http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/campaigns/m arc_r_pacheco.asp?cycle=02, but I didn't see Microsoft or its employees as contributors. However, Information Week has an interesting article at http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArt icle.jhtml?articleID=172900251 that states that Microsoft gained support of both State Senator Marc Pacheco and Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin. It doesn't state how it gained their support.
I suspect that these two are pandering to a special interest group (in this case, the disabled) to gain votes in upcoming elections. Of course, pandering to Microsoft may benefit them too.

State Senator != Senator

[renard]

An anonymous reader writes to mention a ZDNet article on Massachusetts senator Marc Pacheco's OpenDocument study....

"Massachusetts Senator" == (Edward "Ted" Kennedy || John Kerry)

Marc Pacheco is a "Massachusetts State Senator", i.e. one of 40 members of the upper house of the bicameral Massachusetts state legislature.

Big difference.

Re:Apples & Oranges

[mspohr]

Duh!

I just took a look at my Ubuntu installation and I can turn on "Assistive Technology Support" which includes a screen reader, screen magnifier, and on-screen keyboard.

Of course, these tools work with all applications in the OS, not just the office suite. But is surely works for OpenOffice, etc.

This bozo politician seems to be saying that Open Documents don't have these features but clearly they do.

Re:An Even Better Proposed Format

[timeOday]

Ah, you're right, I am blinded by my own zeal. Thank you for helping me see the light.

Not only should we select a document format that supports speech, but that should be embedded into the file format as a wav. I think that this will make it easier for applications to play it for the user

Now you're intentionally refusing to see the problem.

You can argue until you're blue in the face that document format and application features are two separate things, but this fact remains: if you dictate a format, then people have to use an application that supports the format!

The fact that an OpenDocument editor could have the necessary features is almost certainly true, and I happen to think the whole argument has a sort of "think of the children" ring to it. But when you propose an actual switchover in an important application, you have to get all your ducks in a row. You can't just tell people not to worry about a real problem just because it could be solved.