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Microsoft's Lobbying In Massachusetts
Andy Updegrove writes "Carol Sliwa at ComputerWorld has posted two excellent stories just now on ODF in Massachusetts, based on over 300 emails secured under the Massachusetts Public Records Law (the local analogue of the Federal Freedom of Information Act). The longer and more intriguing article focuses on Microsoft's lobbying efforts in Massachusetts, and confirms, as I reported last week, that Microsoft lobbyist Brian Burke was spearheading an effort to bring pressure on the state's Information Technology Division (ITD) by promoting an amendment that would have taken away much of the ITD's power to make technology policy. The article goes on to describe the back-channel negotiations between State CIO Louis Gutierrez and Microsoft's Alan Yates, and the way that Microsoft played the lobbying card throughout those discussions in an effort to protect its wildly profitable Office software franchise against potential erosion by competing products that support ODF." Andy has a blog entry on the lobbying effort.
far to many re-defining words in todays world
s/lobbying/bribing
s/pretexting/lying
Any supplier that makes enough to pay a full time lobbyist is overcharging.
Of a dying company?
"No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson
Long ago I remember a Microsoft that had nothing but contempt for the political process. A Microsoft that intended to dominate the market through mass, vendor lockout, FUD, giving stuff away, etc.
You know, the Microsoft that got sued.
Having learned the lesson that ignoring politicians is not good for your health, is it any wonder that Microsoft is lobbying as hard as it can?
Good luck to them. I'll be happy to see them take their lumps when they screw up their technology badly enough that the world moves en masse to something better. Meanwhile, I'm smirking at the do-gooders and busybodies who are being hoisted on their own petards.
668: Neighbour of the Beast
Lobbying companies aren't new, but when you're Microsoft, it all changes?
It's just good-ol'-boy business/politics in action.
"No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson
" Microsoft lobbyist Brian Burke was spearheading an effort to bring pressure on the state's Information Technology Division (ITD) by promoting an amendment that would have taken away much of the ITD's power to make technology policy."
So, instead of spending time and money on making a better product, Microsoft decides to spend it on removing the power of choice from potential consumers? It's beginning to seem like the only products actually available in a free market here are the legislators themselves.
If Office is so good, why is Microsoft so afraid?
This is another failed attempt by M$ to take over everything. They want the US cause France has gone open source! YAY! LINUX! ~Havoc~
Money can buy! If you are going to allow such blatant lobbying and kickbacks in your political system you have nobody but yourselves to blame for the results.
It takes a lot of energy to convince people that using open, standard formats to store files somehow gives "preferential treatment for specific vendor products"
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
ODF is a data format definition not an application. It does not have usabilitiy issues, applications do.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
ODF (Open Document) does not have usability issues. Period. It is a document format, nothing more. Now if you are talking about OpenOffice.org, AbiWord, KOffice, the next version of Wordperfect or any of the word processes/document systems that support ODF, then you might have a point. All the talk of ODF having usability issues is just the sound of FUD smacking the media around. Accessibility for the disabled should ultimately be superior with the ODF format because it is a completely open, machine readable format and therefore should be easily transformed into what ever media is required for disabled access (Large Print, audio - speech and speech recognition, braille, etc.).
Cheers,
Toby Haynes
Anything I post is strictly my own thoughts and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opinions of IBM.
Lets see, a large corporation is lobbying in order to expand/protect its market.. This is news how?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I remember there was a lot of effort put into ODF, then there was a change of political leaders in Massachusetts, and then .. I can't remember - did they scrap whole project, or not?
What is the current state of Massachusetts switch?
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#\ @ ? Colonize Mars
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Fourteenth! (After half an hour on Slashdot). Woot!
Seriously, is this really surprising to anyone? I guess I'd be more interested to know who's pimping the blogger who spends so much valuable free time following this minutiae. (I only wish someone followed FEDERAL requisition contracts with as much interest.)
Wasn't there an article recently about Gates for President??? I think MSFT is attacking on several fronts now...
Why do tech companies that work with OSS not insist on resumes only in ODF. Gently force the issue. After all other companies only accept DOC.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
What results. The end of most regular everyday needs in America will be replaced by the huge wave of monopoly. Just kidding, but imagine what that would be like. Micro$oft as our GOVERMENT! Why does M$ think they can mess with everything? Or do they just want are money? ~Havoc~
Except that Gates stepped down because of the antitrust trial, seeing as he was becoming quite a bad image for the company. Now it's run by a useless fat bastard who should be in insurance sales, and is probably one of the few people capable of making it implode.
We can't possibly let these "information technology" people decide what to do with our inter-nets resources. They obviously don't understand the critical nature of how this technology works. Why, just this Friday I sent an email to one of my contacts in the state government there, and their internets were so clogged that it still hasn't arrived. If they can't keep their system of tubes clean, how can we possibly expect them to make good decisions about what prograpplications are wise to run on their computers?
Sincerely,
Sen. Stevens.
Fill in your four or five-letter word of wisdom here _ _ _ _ _.
The model corporation for leftists? It seems to me that they might have been considered a triumph of capitalism and the free market before all these anti-trust issues. Now they're a perfect case for people who want government intervention in the market.
The unfortunate thing is that, whenever the current US government gets into managing things, they seem to go wherever the money is. Lobbyists have too much influence, and they're good at what they do, so whoever is paying the most for lobbyists is likely to come out on top. Therefore, government intervention tends to take the form of things like the DMCA instead of meaningful anti-trust actions.
The anti-trust case was not about companies "moaning about getting their asses kicked", it was about Microsoft breaking the law. If other companies had been permitted to ignore competition law, Microsoft would be long dead; Gates was a successful criminal but a mediocre businessman.
> Now, congratulations, people. You've awakened a sleeping giant.
Sorry, I don't see what basis a software vendor has to lobby against a document format chosen in the public interest. Microsoft are free to support ODF or not, anything else is just the dirty business tactics we've come to expect from this criminal monopoly.
I'd read before here and there that Saugus, MA has been experimenting with the OpenDocument format for a (relative) long time. Does anyone know what the outcome there was? Is ODF still being used in Saugus?
Microsoft's shenanigans appalls. But the sad thing is all this stuff is bloatware. Oo.org is even more bloated, and rather slower, than Office. And way back when it was Wordperfect started the rot.
Take wp programs. *Most* people could do all the word-processing they need in a lightweight application that uses rft format. Software sellers have relied on adding "features" - features that most of their customers don't understand and don't need - to keep selling "upgraded" versions of their software. And with the added complexity come sluggishness, the need for ever-more powerful hardware, insecurity - Office macros, anyone? - and instability. Heck, MS did a survey asking people what new features they'd like to see in Office, and the amusing thing is that all the top answers were *already* in it; the customers simply didn't know they were there.
All Microsoft's products are like this - feature-driven. That's why there are more holes in Windows than in OpenBSD, which is quality-driven. But MS are not the only offenders here by any means.
Re-election to the Senate.
The people deserve the government they get. And they deserve to get it good and hard.
668: Neighbour of the Beast
Every sizeable company has them. They're called salesmen.
Red Hat lobbies... are they overcharging? Is free too much?
At least groklaw claims it's related.
http://groklaw.net/
You're an idiot...
SUE APPLE BECAUSE IT LAZOREDPEWPEWED THE MARKET WITH DRM INFESTED MUSIC!!!
see how easy it is to make something that makes sense sound stupid?
I don't get it. Microsoft gets sued because it had a better idea than everyone else (which, despite of whether you think it is bloatware or not, sales numbers do not lie...they didn't magically reach monopoly status, the market majority put them there) and yet Apple gets praised for it's "groundbreaking" mp3 player that has more restrictions on it than a 13 year old pregnant girl?
Living With a Nerd
If I have the right take on you, you're from a country famed in the past for its tolerance.
I see now that your new Muslim Overlords are changing the tenor of discourse in the Netherlands. Instead of live and let live, it's a slit throat and knife in the chest for Theo van Gogh, and nukes for Microsoft.
Nice.
668: Neighbour of the Beast
I don't normally reply to AC's but it got modded insightful for no good reason and saddens me because it suggests there is way too much ignorance on the issue.
In my limited experience working on the contractor side of gov't projects, I promise you lobbying of all kinds is done for every single expenditure. Standard Operating Procedure.
I don't know how much of it is legal versus illegal, but this is an excellent example of how gov't IT expenditures really work. Nearly all of the decision making is done via back channels, then the appropriate public documentation is created and the money is spent.
If there was ever a better application of the term "textbook case" I cannot think of it.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
I work at a tech company in Massachusetts.
MSFT has obviously monopoly leveraged *huge* extra costs on virtually all businesses in this state and others.
Does anyon know if there's any such thing as a "corporate petition" that I could pesuade my company to join?
...to enact corporate death penalties. A monoply in itself isn't much of a crime, but abuse by said monopoly should warrant the business's death sentence, which would be a complete liquidation of their assests to be spread in full to the community and disallow any golden parachutes for the likes of Bill Gates or any other in position of power.
Companies lobbying the government subvert democracy. That works when the taxpayers aren't paying attention but the country seems to be getting irritable about all the corruption at this point. I'm thinking news story about any law being made should mention how much money the sponsoring Congessmen get from the industry lobbies the bill helps out. Then you could say something like "Ted Stevens tried to attach a rider to the budget bill to the budget proposal again. Sen. Stevens has received $372,140 from oil and gas companies over the course of his career (According to opensecrets.org.)" I think there'd be far fewer shennanigans if news stories took that tone. I think it'd be better still if lobbying and riders were outlawed outright but then Congress wouldn't be able to get their piggy fingers on any of that pie. And Congress does like their pie...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
...between 2 warring states, not what ends up being a feature request from a customer to their vendor.
This is why Microsoft must be crushed, for no other reason than the "we know better what you need than you do" mentality that this just exemplifies. You do not continue doing business with clients being a jackass in any other position than that of MONOPOLY.
Bill Gates first official act as President will be to upgrade the Nuclear Trigger Software with the latest version of Microsoft Server: Nuclear Edition. Who knows if the world will still exist for his second act of having Balmer throw out the old chair in the oval office to make room for his more comfortable seat of power.
Posted anonymous on the chance I can still whore myself out to Microsoft one day.
If you notice, I didn't claim otherwise. I would, in fact, lean towards it being a statement that's generally true, but I just wasn't feeling ambitious enough right at the moment of writing my post where I wanted to make such an bold claim about all governments everywhere ever.
Maybe a government could be constructed that wasn't very corrupt. Maybe such a government exists somewhere, or has existed at some time. I don't know. I'm not trying to be specifically ant-Republican, in the last few years, EU has tried to stand against Microsoft and the US government hasn't. I'm not versed enough on the situation to blame anyone in particular for this, but in my opinion it's a bad thing. I'm generally not in favor of "big government" particularly because of inefficiencies and corruption, but I believe that anti-trust regulation is necessary in some cases.
But every time someone announces a plan to migrate to FOSS Microsoft is forced to give them a bigger discount. Someday soon a Microsoft salesperson will tell you, "Hey, why would you install OOo for free? We will pay you to install MS-Office!".
If Microsoft shipped shrink wrapped boxes of horse shit they'd still dominate
Others have replied that Microsoft does ship horse shit, but I beg to disagree. Horse shit is useful as manure. Hmmm, wait, not really. I remember now that a gardener once told me that horse shit isn't as good a manure as cow shit. Cows are ruminants. By chewing their cud, they digest seeds better than horses, so you get less weeds from cow manure. Yes, perhaps Microsoft does sell horse shit, but they certainly don't sell anything as useful as cow shit!
You can lobby for an industry or a group of firms or for the rights of some group of people. I'm not sure you can legally 'lobby' for a unique product, forcing it upon government to buy. I'm reasonably sure that's something like graft or bribery or extortion. Normally speaking government procurement is sent out for bidding, such as cars or equipment. And whoever gets the bid gets to deliver on it. But in terms of lobbying - I'm unconvinced you can represent Ford and then pay out monies to politicians to award contracts for Ford.
Don't you mean "bought a better idea?" or "embraced and extinguished competing ideas?"?
I just saw this bit about sales numbers not lying. ("sales numbers do not lie...they didn't magically reach monopoly status")
I'm sure Nazi knick-knacks sold well in Germany at some point, that crack sells well in some neighborhoods, and Enron stock was once sought after.
Boosters in the midst of those markets were probably comforted by the sales figures too.
Good luck to a company intent upon twisting arms and cajoling people's elected representatives into NOT acting in interests of their constituents?
You should be careful of what you wish for.
Then you go on to say "I'm smirking at the do-gooders and busybodies who are being hoisted on their own petards."?
Are you suggesting that if people get together and petition their representatives to enforce the existing laws and exercise common sense when spending their tax dollars only to have a corporation spend millions of dollars in a campaign to twist the law then those citizens are witnessing the results intended by a democratic system? or a free republic?
I guess you see people who'd like to see progress ("do-gooders") or pay attention to detail ("busybodies") as like those saps so long ago who felt we should have a say about how government runs or carefully read the Stamp Act - they just haven't been sufficiently shamed and mocked yet.
Democracy, free enterprise & justice.
Modern day myths.
It's like Microsoft is trying to be evil. I hope Massachusetts' ITD doesn't give into Microsoft, but MS it pretty influential. MA has some pretty strong arguments against using MS Office, but all we can do is hope that's enough.
Does anyon know if there's any such thing as a "corporate petition" that I could pesuade my company to join?
There was a petition, but it's largely over and the result of MS at least giving lip service to OpenDocument support has been achieved. It remains to be seen what really happens with the third party plug-ins for MS Office, which is what the support amounts to it may be unsupport. Though the MS sponsored plug-in is the only one that makes the news, the one that has actually entered testing is the OpenDocument Foundation's ODF Plugin for MS Office.
As far as petitions go, about the closest thing right now would be for your business to sign onto the OpenDocument Alliance.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Yeah, more generalisations are the best way to see the "truth". Give me a break.
Stupid people think it's cool. Smart people thinks it's a joke; also cool.
I'll tell you this, cow manure leads to 2 foot diameter sunflowers, and zuccini's the size of baseball bats. We used to mix cow, pig and horse manure when I was a kid, giant piles 30 feet high. Good stuff for growing corn and tomatoes. :-)
The dirt pile I have now for my vegetable garden has cow shit some 8 years old and still produces mega veggies.