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| The Latest on ODF and MA |
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Wednesday, January 25 2006 @ 09:00 PM EST
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Andy Updegrove has listed some things to watch for going forward in the ODF in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts story. I don't normally do an article just pointing you to someone else's article, but in this case, I'm making an exception, because he answers several questions I've been wondering about, including what is happening with the attempt to wrest power away from ITD.
That would be the Morrissey Amendment to the economic stimulus bill, the amendment trying to take power away from ITD and give it to a political task force that seems to be peopled with nongeeks who like Microsoft quite a lot. Updegrove seems to think the amendment is a dead duck. He quotes from some letters in opposition sent by the Massachusetts Network Communications Council (MNCC), Mass High Technology Council (MHTC) and the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council (MTLC).
Some highlights from the article on the amendment: The legislature is now back in session, and I am told that this portion of the economic stimulus bill to which the amendment relates will now begin getting attention, now that debate on another part of the same bill (involving health care) has been resolved. The next step will be for the economic bill (with or without the amendment) to be approved by each branch of the legislature. Following this, a reconciliation committee will be formed, and the final bill will then presumably be approved by both houses. Finally, the Governor would need to sign the bill – and can veto it if he chooses.
Will all this happen? I have talked to several people in the know who believe that the amendment will not survive. Also, he writes about what to expect from Sen. Pacheco's demand to audit the audit report, as well as what's going on with the disabililty issue and with replacing Peter Quinn as CIO. He also gives a projected timeline for OASIS's application of ODF to ISO for adoption as a global standard: Under the ISO "publicly available specification" (PAS) process used by OASIS for ODF, and which would be used by Ecma for XMLRS, balloting is held open for six months, following which a committee reconciles (under its own authority) any comments included with any votes submitted. The reconciliation process should begin in May of 2006, meaning that ODF should achieve adoption next summer - at least a year to 18 months before XMLRS could be expected to achieve a similar status, and be considered on an equal footing in (for example) Europe with ODF. All in all, ODF continues to keep chugging right along, despite all efforts to scuttle it. So far, so good. The only two serious issues, in Updegrove's mind, are guaranteeing accessibility, getting the software done in time to enable that, and the audit. But frankly, if the audit find that open standards/open formats won't save the Commonwealth money, someone will have had to put his thumb on the scale. Any such "Get the Facts" type of report will be greeted with peals of cynical laughter all around the world.
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| Authored by: overshoot on Wednesday, January 25 2006 @ 09:29 PM EST |
Instructions to make links clicky at the bottom of the comment form. Please
preview the HTML.[ Reply to This | # ]
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- HD TV and DRM - Authored by: kawabago on Wednesday, January 25 2006 @ 10:23 PM EST
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- It's all a question of motivation and timing? - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, January 25 2006 @ 10:33 PM EST
- FUD!! - "Hounded by EU, Microsoft to License Part of Source Code" - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, January 25 2006 @ 11:53 PM EST
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- today's Microsoft interoperability failures - Authored by: qu1j0t3 on Monday, January 30 2006 @ 02:08 AM EST
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| Authored by: ghost on Wednesday, January 25 2006 @ 09:36 PM EST |
... so that PJ can find them.[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: The Mad Hatter r on Wednesday, January 25 2006 @ 09:46 PM EST |
Methinks Senator Pacheo may rue the day he decided to take on ODF. This is not
to say that he is not a decent guy - he could quite well be (never meet him -
only have the transcript to go on). However people make mistakes. I can see a
concerned lobbyist calling about the ODF issue, and convincing a non-technical
type that there was something smelly in the fridge, and that it needed cleaning
out - not mentioning of course that the smelly thing was the lobbyist's socks!
---
Wayne
http://urbanterrorist.blogspot.com/
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, January 25 2006 @ 10:14 PM EST |
... that supposedly informed and knowledgeable people keep confusing ODF (a
*FORMAT*) with Office (an *APPLICATION*). Who is responsible for such
incredible misrepresentation?[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: TheBlueSkyRanger on Wednesday, January 25 2006 @ 10:30 PM EST |
Hey, everybody!
As much as I respect the informed opinion that the chances of the bill surviving
constitutes the first confirmed existence of absolute zero, this is far from
over. There are many times when people are upset, someone makes a vague
gesture, and the outrage vanishes. It's kind of like the movie
"Bullworth"--"We came out, did some photo ops, and pretty much
forgot about it."
This is what M$ and its cronies are counting on. Do not assume it is dead.
Make sure every elected official knows they are still being watched and how they
vote could be a deal breaker when re-election comes up. They are paid to serve
the public. Make sure they don't forget it.
Dobre utka,
The Blue Sky Ranger
"Why change anything when a token gesture makes everyone happy?"
--The Boss
An old Sally Forth strip I know I'm misremembering, but that was essentially the
gist[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: meshuggeneh on Thursday, January 26 2006 @ 02:05 AM EST |
Imagine if Diebold and other voting software companies' software were exposed to
this kind of scrutiny. If only Quinn would consider doing this for us in that
sector. :)
Hi PJ, love your efforts, sorry I've been away so long.
[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 26 2006 @ 09:56 AM EST |
>>>
But frankly, if the audit find that open standards/open formats won't save the
Commonwealth money, someone will have had to put his thumb on the scale.
<<<
This is frankly not true.
There are a marage of one time non recuring costs associated with the first of a
kind type start up and that included ODF software.
In fact it may not even be true for the second and thirs startup but after it
has been done and the political kinks worked out of how to do it there should
then be a big decrease in start up costs that of course will not have any effect
on MA start up costs.[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 26 2006 @ 02:06 PM EST |
It is hard to believe that MS has a lead over Open source software when it comes
to helping people with disabilities.
It seems to me that the open source community could easily rise to the challenge
and make this point moot. I bet if someone looked around there is software that
can be added to OO or to any other contender.
It would be interesting to catalog groups working on solutions and then find out
what they need in order to bring there SW to market.
Three cheers for anyone working on this area and if they can be identified as
open source projects, we that cannot write code should contribute hard dollars
to the effort.
I would donate just to be rid the argument. It is annoying.[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: WhiteFang on Thursday, January 26 2006 @ 03:17 PM EST |
Perhaps more of an effort should be made to emphasize the different dates when
the standards process will be complete. A 1 1/2 year difference before final
acceptance is a non-trivial factor to most IT dept whether public or private.
---
... us old Linux geeks ... see the whole security issue as ridiculous, akin to
devoting massive resources to developing bigger and better waders, instead of
sim[ Reply to This | # ]
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