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Texas Bill For Open Documents
Ditesh Kumar tips us to a blog entry by Sam Hiser noting a bill filed in Texas that would require state agencies to conduct their work in an open document format. After Microsoft's grueling battle against ODF in Massachusetts, bluest of blue states, it must be galling to face te same fight in the reddest of the red. Hiser notes that the bill includes a rigorous and sound definition of an open document format, which ODF would meet but Microsoft's current OOXML submission would not.
I never thought I'd say something like this, but GO TEXAS!
It may be Texas, but the bill was filed by Rubén Hinojosa, a Democrat representative from the U.S. House. They'll shoot it down. (unless Cheney misses and hits MS OOXML by accident.)
With Massachusetts, bunches of foreign governments, and now Texas realizing the importance of document formats that are Free, future proof, and equally accessible to all citizens (including those who don't use Windows), I think it's about time the other forty-eight states introduced similar bills of their own. I just wrote an email suggesting such to my representative; now it's your turn!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Well, I'm not a Texan, but since it's a bill in the Texas state Senate, I figure you probably ought to contact your state Senator.
Also, since it's going to have to get out of committee before anyone else sees it (unless your state government is unusual), you could contact the other Senators who make up whichever committee it goes into -- which, based on a 10-second scan of the list of committees, I'm guessing is this one. But I could be wrong.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
This just goes to show that Free Software is not a democrat or republicrat thing. (Remember, Microsoft itself is in one of the 'bluer' states.)
The real issue here is freedom, and the benefits that can be derived from it: Better security, lower upfront costs, less obsolescence, open formats, and the ability to choose between software packages and providers, rather than just taking whatever Microsoft shoves down your throat.
Question: How will each of these states' approach to this `open formats' "problem" be similar and how will it be different if one dares to compare and of course speculate?
Utah: 71% Bush in 04
Alabama: 63% Bush
Unfortunately, it's in the form of a recommendation, but it's better than nothing. In a nutshell, it directs Texas state agencies and higher education institutions to consider OSS for all IT procurements. I believe it was originally the brainchild of a Dallas-area senator named John Corona.
I referenced it quite often while pushing for OSS-based IT implementation at the college I was teaching at...most administrators were ignorant that this even existed.
What's Slashdot going to do now that it has used the reddest of the red and the bluest of the blue for states? Northest of the north? Bestest of the best? Openest of the open?
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
Microsoft went for ISO fast-track approval which allows only one month for dissenting countries to speak out (and with 6000 pages in the spec it's not enough time -- there hasn't been any public standardisation prior to this fast track as is normal with fast-tracked standards).
Anyway, as I understand it there only needs to be one single vote against in order to force a fast-tracked proposal down the long and arduous path of open evaluation, analysis, and justification. Canada and Britain have voted against Microsoft. Thanks Canada, thanks Britain!
OOXML is now considerably more shakey with governments around the world, and other countries, like Texas.
-- Matt Carter
Mod -1
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Ah'd like to make it clear as the wide blue sky that Ah am indeed for open documents. We've got to stop those Mahcruhsowft bush-whackers afore they've done rustled off all ahr fahn computers. Wah, Ah'd even make common cause with them damyankees from Barstn. Any foe of Redmond Bill is durn tootin' a friend of mine!
Thank y'all fer yer time.
Pleased ter meet'cha!
Texas Bill
It may be Texas, but the bill was filed by Rubén Hinojosa, a Democrat representative from the U.S. House. They'll shoot it down.
...and that's why George Washington said to stay far away from political parties. I love how well America listened.
Keep in mind Dell, which has been noted recently for the N-Series computers, is also located near Austin. The concept that the incredibly liberal capital Austin introducing progressive bills isn't terribly suprising. If this had been a city council proposition in a small town an hour outside of San Antonio or Tyler, this would be news.
moox. for a new generation.
I hope Microsoft's newly released ODF converter doesn't mess with Texas's plans... a partly-free solution just doesn't cut it in my eyes.
For me, this is all about the future. Locking up government documents in proprietary formats is a disaster for future generations. We should ideally be scratching them out on cave walls...
Friedmud
Documents open you!
Yeehah!
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
You are quite the fool to believe that OpenXML is as documented and implementable as ODF. MS believes that documenting a function as "Should work like Word-97 spacing bug" as sufficient.
That is not a standard, that is just a list of all the bugs in the MS code, which no one should really try to emulate.
I'm not sure why being a so-called "red state" means that it's people or government agencies are supporters of MS. What does that have to do with anything? Spare me the drivel about the Bush administration caving on the MS anti-trust case. Maybe they did. Maybe I agree. However, the sweeping generalization made by the original poster is simply unsupported. Instead, I would point you to the fact that you're talking about the people who brought you the Boston Tea Party and The Alamo here. It's no surprise. These are Americans standing up against 21st century tyranny. Government users are BIG business for MS and YOUR tax dollars are paying for it. Texans, voice your support for this bill today!
Okay, then I will instead:
OpenXML doesn't meet the criteria because parts of it are patented. Besides, even if it weren't patented parts of the "standard" essentially say "re-implement the behavior of Word" which, for obvious reasons, is entirely unreasonable and should also disqualify it.
If this post above yours is accurate, no it won't.
No, you're wrong. Patents qualify as restrictions.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
You could write to Rick Perry and ask him to executive order it into policy. (Except where religious or personal reasons prevent.)
Of most concern is that if OOXML were the standard, Microsoft will maintain its complete control over government documents. Why? Because it will probably be illegal to switch products to a product that doesn't support the spec 100%.
While I do like the Microsoft Office products more than the other suites (close race now, but Outlook seals it for me), this is just going to screw everyone over.
"MS isn't the only company that uses Anti-Competitive methods or tries to lock users into their product. ipods anyone?"
there's a big difference between DRM that's specific to a device (that's right - tracks from the ITMS are the _only_ lock-in to the ipod, which also plays mp3 and AAC - open formats), and software that results in lock-in on content that you create yourself.
I'm no fan of DRM or the ITMS, but the lock-in to the ipod is no worse than that of any other music player!
No, probably not. Microsoft's attempt at a swift flanking move on our stampede to format freedom has (temporarily) been blocked http://www.computing.co.uk/itweek/news/2173717/ope n-standards-bodies-call-halt.
"published without restrictions or royalties": OpenXML already fulfills this today
Good point. Today yes, OpenXML meets that criteria, but tomorrow may be a different story.
"fully and independently implemented by multiple software providers on multiple platforms without any intellectual property reservations for necessary technology": Once Novell did it for OpenXML, there will be three vendors (Novell, Microsoft and the open-source project doing the ODF-OpenXML converter) on multiple platforms (Windows & all platforms OpenOffice runs on). Sounds like OpenXML has this one in the pocket as well.
Novell is in Microsoft's pocket, and Microsoft is funding the ODF-OpenXML converter. Besides, you forgot to allow for the "without any intellectual property reservations for necessary technology" part, which is not guaranteed with OpenXML.
But for all skeptics, once OpenXML is an ISO standard in 6 months or so, this will be a given.
We'd better wait until then before adopting it then. Mean time, ODF does all of the above, but without any of the "gotchas".
By the way, congratulations on writing a post which very cleverly skirts all the questionable bits of Microsoft's OpenXML push without actually lying. Care to disclose who you work for?
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
At the Congressional Internet Caucus last week there was a group from tux.org (affiliation of LUGs) with a table demonstrating how thanks to open standards like for the web, Linux, Mac, and Windows computers can all communicate just fine. They were there to push for open standards. I hung out with them for a lot of it (though the digitalfreedom.org people were cool too), and there were a lot of people from the Senate asking about why open standards are important (though it WAS in the Hart Building). There were also quite a few people asking about Linux in education, ease of use for students, what to do for commercial support, etc.
look! it's a bird, it's a plane, it's....a girl? yes, a girl browsing Slashdot on Linux
Say what you will about the political climate here(very red) but a lot of stuff is online and sped up by computers. Last year when I incorporated I used the online website, paid the $300 fee with my debit card, and the paperwork was done and I was sent everything with the seal and all the appropriate numbers within two hours via e-mail in PDF format, completely official and everything. Paying corp taxes couldn't be easier(few that there be), ditto with unemployment. If I have to do anything that affects my corp, pretty much everything is online and an option to be filed. And it's all done by the state.
Getting my federal EIN meant going through a third party company, paying a fee(only $20, so I figured might as well instead of waiting for the feds to get it to me in a few weeks by doing it on paper). It works really well. I renew my drivers license online(every other renewal only, gotta get new pics at some point) and my vehicle registration is always done online. In terms of computing it's a very progressive state. Much of it is very basic HTML so it works in whatever browser you use it with.
That story along with the study is a little misleading. If you look past the sensationalism and to the meat of it, you will quickly find that the intercultural Development Research Association is only concerned with students who recieve a diploma in public schools and compare that to enrolment from a previous set of years back to 8th or 9th grade. On the surface, this looks sound but it doesn't count the students who leave the state and finish school somewhere else nor does it count the student who leave the public school system and enter a private or charter school.
In fact, the organization apears to be centered around develpoing way to keep kids in public schools so leaving the student who recieve a diploma from private or home schooling seems to be on purpose. You can find out all about the study and the details from thier website and all you need to do is google fo it. It will be one of the first results. They don't try to hide the fact they are doing this. But they don't neccesarily advertise it either.
Now, I'm not going to say that there isn't a drop out problem because I really have no way of knowing how many student went to home schooling, charter schools, private schools in general or even out of state to finish schooling and recieve their diplomas. I tried searching for the number to see how they compared to public school and they apear to be tracked and reported differently. To skip the details about all the different numbers, I did find a site which seems to include most of the alternative schools wich shows to be about 17% of the number of students attending traditional public schools.
And we might ask why this is important. Well, if the obscenly large number of drop outs don't include the alternative schooled kids, then the numbers aren't as bad as they seem (might still be bad though). And this information is most interesting considering that in texas, there has been a grass roots movment for private, charter, and alternative schools as well as vouchers to help student who wouldn't neccesarily afford them attend. In 95, a law was passed setting the stage for an explosion in charter schools and home schoolong. In 96, houstan set a program in place that allows student to tranfere to private non sectarien schools on the cities dime becuse it was cheaper then the fix for the overcrowdingof the schools. In 97, th charter schools laws were expanded to enlarge the cap allowing more to be dommisioned. It took the cap away for districs marked as at risk. In 98, it is reported that the school vouchers idea had at least 54% of the public supporting them. In 1998, the Texas CEO Foundation who had been providing scholorships for private schooling since 92, has made a scholarship available to every low-income child in the predominantly Hispanic Edgewood Independent School District to attend a school of choice. And finaly, although the vouchers never recieved finding by the state, A number of private organizations have step forward with scholorships to students wishing to leave the public school system.
I'm sure this didn't just pop up over night either. It is something that has been building momentum for quite a while. This could account for some of the missing students in public education that are considered dropouts. This could also be a key reason why the article you refrenced stated that the study showed the drop out rate as beinghigher then the stats reported dropout rate. The article claims The statewide dropout rate is about 33 percent -- or 20 points higher than what the Texas Education Agency reports. , the numbers I found of students who are in private schooling are 241,674 in 2003 were the public schools are 4,259,823. And that seems to be around 17% or so percent. And a larger portion of the target audience for the scholorships seem to be minorities which reflect the drop out rates too.
The resulting rates after taking these into account might still be alarming. But it definatly isn't as bad as it first apears.
When the government start using Ipod only files to distribute and interact with documents I need in order to do business in the state, I'll start bitching a bit louder about the Ipod. But I shouldn't need to purchase a $400 program to interact with a state on a fundemental level. I shouldn't have to do this to do business in the state either, even if the business is with others in the state and we just need to get permit aprovals and such.
And I know, there are alternative ways to interact. But the end result would be either pony up the dough or suffer an unfair competitive advantage to your competitors because of the states decision that is funded by my tax dollars.
And the refusial to pay, isn't even a decision over the money needed, it is about principle. Sooner or later we will have enough little $400 for this program, 200 for that program and so on. Before long, a person will have to have thoughsands of dollars just for programs to do business. And it might not stop at doing business, what about complaints and such. Shoudl a person need to pay a microsoft tax to fill out a complaint form or ask the state/city to fix something they should have already fixed? I know, I'm rambling. Your point is still valid but i see it in different levels. Hopfully other can too.
My bicyles
The author made a mistake, which has been corrected. The bill was submitted by Juan Hinojosa, State Senator from District 20
Probably because MS did and does pay people to post favorible comments about them here and elsewhere (including wikipeadia).
Besides who would shill for a corporation without getting paid? You don't see me posting about how great mazdas are at a forum about BMWs do you?
evil is as evil does
"Microsoft's covenant not to sue means that you can use all of those patents freely in any way without any restrictions and it also means that no other company can go ahead, patent the same stuff and make you pay for it. What do you want more?"
Microsoft's covenant not to sue applies to the OOXML specification, in and of itself.
There is no such covenant from Microsoft for Microsoft-proprietary components that teh OOXML specification invokes: such as WMF format for graphics, or ActiveX, or Visual Basic, and so on.
Therefore, no-one can implement an application to handle OOXML documents and all that they may contain without violating Microsoft proprietary formats for which Microsoft have not offered any covenant.
I am writing to ask that you will vote in favor of bill (SB 446), introduced by Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, which would require all electronic state documents to be stored in a format described by an open standard
As an IT professional, document formats play an important role in my work (and, consequently, my contribution to the Texas economy). Open standards and open formats ensure that critical information will always be available to citizens, but they also make it possible for government operations to be more efficient. When government functions are not tied in to closed formats and specific applications, competition for the government's IT contracts is freer.
Additionally, open formats make it possible for government to use local contractors, so that monies spent on IT go back into the Texas economy instead of to an external vendor.
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love