crosoft offers Architects a view
,----[ Quote ] | Oh, and Nick McGrath (director of platform strategy at Microsoft Ltd) | wants us all to petition our local standards body (BSI) to support | the ratification of Ecma Open XML as an ISO standard (a pleading | letter was included in the conference pack). "The issue should be | technical, not political," he says. Really? Since when was | standards-making not political, in part at least? Why do you | think that the (mostly excellent) OMG UML 2.0 standard has | redundancies in it, if not to keep participating vendors happy? | | No, the real issue with standards is the follow-on availability | of cheap, effective interoperability testing suites. I don't | really see why we can't have overlapping standards, where Open | XML, say, supports conversion from legacy Microsoft Office | document formats into something more open, and ODF supports | a simple universal (but less rich) document format for everybody | else to use. `----
Related:
Q&A: Former Mass. CIO feels 'bittersweet pride' after battles with Microsoft, legislature
,----[ Quote ] | As CIO of Massachusetts from February to November last year, Louis | Gutierrez had to endure most of the brunt of Microsoft Corp.'s political | wrath over a state policy calling for the adoption of the Open Document | Format for Office Applications, or ODF -- a rival to the software vendor's | Office Open XML file format. | | [...] | | Do you see any reason for there to be two standards? If you were | starting blank-slate, there certainly would not be value to creating | two separate standards. Over time, it has sometimes been useful to | have the competition of two standards to keep both sides honest. | But I don't see particular value in the long-term co-existence of | two separate standards. `----
From the previous CIO....
,----[ Quote ] | Quinn: Almost to a person, to anybody involved or who knows about | the ODF issue, they attributed the story to Microsoft, right, wrong | or otherwise. Senator Pacheco may be a bully but I do not believe he | is disingenious and would stoop to such a tactic. Senator Pacheco and | Secretary Galvin's office remain very heavily influenced by the | Microsoft money and its lobbyist machine, as witnessed by their | playbook and words, in my opinion. | | Quinn: I believe that the ODF decision will stand. I believe MS | will continue to do anything and everything it can to stop it. And I | know my seat wasn't even empty and they (MS) took another shot at | the title, to no avail. This horse is out of the barn and I see no | way for it to go back in. Remember, all we are asking for was and is | for Microsoft to commit to open and the standards process; so | everyone looks really bad if the plug gets pulled at this juncture. `----
MA Governor-Elect Names MS Anti-ODF Lobbyist to Technology Advisory Group
The Sorry State of Massachusetts
Microsoft offers schools in Mass. free software (to stop ODF adoption)
Microsoft plays Massachusetts Senate card
Politics and tech companies: follow the money
Years of deadlock on EU patent bring some new thinking
Leaked letter warns of open source 'threat to eco-system'
Study: open source needs official support; Lobbyist disagrees with "flawed" conclusions
Report Says Nonprofits Sold Influence to Abramoff
Open Source Foes In Bed With Abramoff
EU official joins consultancy serving Microsoft
US ambassador to the EU was former Microsoft lobbyist
US politicians go to bat for Microsoft
Changing the Report, After the Vote
Microsoft playing three card monte with XML conversion
,----[ Quote ] | Gary Edwards of the Open Document Foundation, a leading member | of its technical committee, says Microsoft is playing proprietary | games aimed at controlling XML file formats and preventing the | Open Document Format from gaining a foothold. `----