See the PC World article “Massachusetts Puts Open XML Out for Consideration” where Bethann Pepoli, acting CIO of the Massachusetts Information Technology Division (ITD), said
“Someone could submit a comment and we could make a review of ETRM and make changes,” she said. Those changes could include eliminating Open XML from ETRM in the final draft.”
If you live in Massachusetts and you care about this issue, you can comment via standards@state.ma.us. I’ve posted a lot of links about this OOXML issue in the context of the JTC1 Fast Track proposal in another blog entry.
Massachussetts appears to be “a dominant vendor with a wall of money” on one side, and “a set of academics, corporations, and hobbyists who want to make interoperable but independent products” on the other.
Not possessing a wall of money myself,and not being in any position to capture any outflow from the ‘wall’, I know which side I am on.
This thing http://www.laptop.org/ is centred in Mass.; at MIT, to be precise. I wonder what kind of data format it will support for “office productivity” documents ?
I’m reasonably willing to bet it will be the less-flashy but more-long-lasting ISO ODF XML one.
FFII is now offering not 2,500 euro, but 25,000 as a ‘bounty’. For anyone who can help, see:
http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?src=rss&id=1623
‘FFII campaigner Benjamin Henrion, founder of the noOOXML.org site, explained: “Microsoft is spending millions on rent-a-crowd support for international certification for its proprietary Office format,’
Help fight to pseudo support. Grassroots can’t be allowed to win.
Bob,
there is a comment over on Groklaw suggesting that MS is going to build a Software development centre in Boston. The poster (clark_kent) doesn’t know if there is a connection with the OOXML descision, curious timing though.
http://www.groklaw.net/comment.php?mode=display&sid=20070705205728953&title=More+on%3A+Massachusetts+Lowers+its+Standards+-+Boston+gets+MS+R%26amp%3BD+center&type=article&order=&hideanonymous=0&pid=591371#c591658
It links to this article
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/technology/070705/z070502A.html
Yesterday they decided to expand around Vancouver Canada in order to attract immigrants where Visas quotas aren’t an issue. It’s all strategic.
Recall the news about Denmark considering OOXML (Wednesday?). Didn’t Microsoft threaten people’s jobs not so long ago? Namely when Denmark wanted to ‘defect’? This was named extortion at the time.