Hey wait a second. So some guy claims to be the owner of Hepatitis C, and is even able to collect rent for any study and research of his prize possession:
"The owner of the genome for Hepatitis C is paid millions by researchers to study this disease. Not surprisingly, many other researchers choose to study something less expensive.
What if his "possession" infects my liver? What recourse do i have against this idiot? It's his virus. He makes money off it. He decides who can study, research and ostensibly treat his virus. He's got a business based on controlled and select access to his prized possession. What's his liability if his dog, er, virus, attacks me?
The ODF Plug-in is still a work in progress. The completion date is January 2007. It's worth noting that Massachusetts is now doing things with the ODF Plug-in prototype that go beyond the original RFi. For instance, an "accessibility interface" has been added. The interface simply reads through the document elements and provides the user with a pop up dialog to describe graphical objects such as pictures, graphs, tables, sub set comments, etc. These descriptives are put into the new accessibility tags as approved by the ISO OpenDocument XML Accessibility Sub Committee.
There are other areas where Massachusetts RFi trials have expanded the possibilities the ODF Plug-in presents. Some of the more interesting have to do with PDF, digital signatures, and an XForms data binding - data extraction interface for MSOffice.
The only way to understand what is going on in Massachusetts is to think back on the ETRM plan. The first order of the day is SOA, and everything flows from that decision. To do SOA you need open standards. And you absolutely must have XML technologies, including a portable XML document model that is universal as both an information transport and information transformation layer across desktop productivity environments, servers and devices.
Massachusetts now has two choices for that portable document model - choices which they clearly didn't have when the ERTM was written. The differences between ODF and MSECMA however are considerable. If they were to choose MSECMA, that decision would drive all desktop, server and device choices to the XP-Vista-.NET system of integrated platforms. With ODF, non Microsoft products can be used at any of the three platforms. We would argue further that the ODF Plug-in offers server and device side providers the same level of integration with an MSOffice bound desktop productivity environment as MSECMA provides to the Vista system of integrated desktop to server to device platforms.
~ge~
The ODF Plug-in can be configured to be the default MSOffice file format. It's also true that since the ODF Plug-in works within MSOffice, there is no problem with the Accessibility Add Ons. Nor is there a problem with MSOffice bound business processes. The ODF Plug-in works in a very transparent and non disruptive way. So transparent that if users are not looking at the file format eXtensions, they wouldn't know they are working directly in OpenDocument.
The important thing is that with the ODF Plug-in, there is no accessibility or assistive technology issue. Nor is there any disruption with MSOffice bound business processes.
~ge~
Slashdot Mirror
Hey wait a second. So some guy claims to be the owner of Hepatitis C, and is even able to collect rent for any study and research of his prize possession: "The owner of the genome for Hepatitis C is paid millions by researchers to study this disease. Not surprisingly, many other researchers choose to study something less expensive. What if his "possession" infects my liver? What recourse do i have against this idiot? It's his virus. He makes money off it. He decides who can study, research and ostensibly treat his virus. He's got a business based on controlled and select access to his prized possession. What's his liability if his dog, er, virus, attacks me?
The ODF Plug-in is still a work in progress. The completion date is January 2007. It's worth noting that Massachusetts is now doing things with the ODF Plug-in prototype that go beyond the original RFi. For instance, an "accessibility interface" has been added. The interface simply reads through the document elements and provides the user with a pop up dialog to describe graphical objects such as pictures, graphs, tables, sub set comments, etc. These descriptives are put into the new accessibility tags as approved by the ISO OpenDocument XML Accessibility Sub Committee. There are other areas where Massachusetts RFi trials have expanded the possibilities the ODF Plug-in presents. Some of the more interesting have to do with PDF, digital signatures, and an XForms data binding - data extraction interface for MSOffice. The only way to understand what is going on in Massachusetts is to think back on the ETRM plan. The first order of the day is SOA, and everything flows from that decision. To do SOA you need open standards. And you absolutely must have XML technologies, including a portable XML document model that is universal as both an information transport and information transformation layer across desktop productivity environments, servers and devices. Massachusetts now has two choices for that portable document model - choices which they clearly didn't have when the ERTM was written. The differences between ODF and MSECMA however are considerable. If they were to choose MSECMA, that decision would drive all desktop, server and device choices to the XP-Vista-.NET system of integrated platforms. With ODF, non Microsoft products can be used at any of the three platforms. We would argue further that the ODF Plug-in offers server and device side providers the same level of integration with an MSOffice bound desktop productivity environment as MSECMA provides to the Vista system of integrated desktop to server to device platforms. ~ge~
The ODF Plug-in can be configured to be the default MSOffice file format. It's also true that since the ODF Plug-in works within MSOffice, there is no problem with the Accessibility Add Ons. Nor is there a problem with MSOffice bound business processes. The ODF Plug-in works in a very transparent and non disruptive way. So transparent that if users are not looking at the file format eXtensions, they wouldn't know they are working directly in OpenDocument. The important thing is that with the ODF Plug-in, there is no accessibility or assistive technology issue. Nor is there any disruption with MSOffice bound business processes. ~ge~