swhiser wrote:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Microsoft is steaming....
Paula Rooney
The press is playing it only through the Microsoft frame...this misses
the point almost entirely. There seems to be no escaping that people
see Technology through their understanding of a) Microsoft as the
company behind the desktop system they have used; and b) one of the
most financially successful businesses in modern times. Reality is
that they are no longer terribly important because the nature of IT
systems has changed for good.
Here's the MassGove document; it is only 20 pages; I DO suggest,
implore, that you read it as this story will be important for a long
time and that would be good for you:
http://www.mass.gov/Aitd/docs/policies_standards/etrm3dot5/ETRM_v3dot5draft_information.pdf
What is impressive about the MassGov document declaring a policy for
migrating to OpenDocument is two things:
1) they are not firing Microsoft but stating their standard
specification for the file formats of documents they wish to produce
and accept within the context of the business of the Commonwealth;
this means that Microsoft can keep this account if its Office suite
starts to use OpenDocument as its default file format. Whether they
will do so is another question, but the key point to keep in the frame
for readers is that if Microsoft loses the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts as a paying customer of its Office software then it
would be **by Microsoft's own choice.**
2) the declaration for the OpenDocument file format falls within a
short document which is like an executive summary laying out the State
CIO's vision for a Services Oriented Architecture of the future based
around the center-piece of the XML and its related markup standards.
Office documents are only a small part of the aspect of a State
government infrastructure that's impacted by this elegant, sweeping
vision. What the State CIO is doing is he's leading the conversation
down to the appropriate fundamental level about data granularity,
reuse, interoperability, manageability, modularity, flexibility, et
cetera-bility. Microsoft (the story of the impact on its business) is
not that important in the wider context of the opportunity to embrace
XML throughout a large organization's IT infrastructure; however that
company must either go away or embrace OpenDocument (an open XML
specification) for the State to successfully implement its vision for
data.
Paula- This is the moment for which I have been building since the day
I joined OpenOffice.org in October, 2001. Our next job is to help the
50 other State CIO's understand the intelligence behind the
Massachusetts vision and help them each implement the vision. It
could take 5 years.
-Sam
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I am not nearly so elegant as you, but I have long stated that Microsoft
is in danger of locking itself out of the marketplace while trying to
lock in their customers. In my observations over the last two years, I
have drawn the conclusion that any company that does not adapt to the
new (software) economy - libre licenses, open standards, etc. - will
become extinct, or at least nearly so. I continue to believe that to be
the case. I have also realized, since I discovered the OASIS process
for OpenDocument (through this list), that once approved, governments
would begin moving to adopt it. As they do, companies will need to move
to adopt the new standard. Any responses to arguments set forth by
Microsoft, et. al., should avoid the emotional dialogue, and focus on
the technical merits of Mass' decision.
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