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Texas Legislature Considers Open Document Formats
An anonymous reader notes that a legislator in Texas has introduced a bill to require open document formats in all state government business. The bill is carefully worded such that only ODF could pass its test as "open." The story is covered by the Fort Worth Star Telegram, which is careful to be even-handed, giving Microsoft's spokesman equal time. A ZDNet blogger notes that the bill, introduced by a Democrat in a state whose politics is dominated by Republicans, faces chances that "...fall somewhere east of slim and west of none."
And semi-dirty to dirty politicking if that doesn't convince them. Remember Massachusetts.
Hey, Massachusetts has to pay for that health care bill somehow!
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There are also ISO standards governing weights and measures. Surely you'd want to choose standards that are open so that in the future if we discover that mass or distance is time-dependent we can change the definitions and standards as necessary.
We don't want to be locked into what some group decided the way things should be. Openness in standards is a mandatory requirement, because standards should be malleable.
Hey, way to ignore the context and miss the whole point of things so you can rant about your political issues.
The one where they legally require you to buy your own private insurance and then call it universal healthcare? Yeah, I'm sure that one is costing the state billions.
It is, because if you cannot afford health insurance, the state picks up the tab. that's the whole key. Massachussetts has the lowest uninsured percentage in the country, by far, but it is expensive to do.
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