Hi,
On 2006-05-06, at 06:10 , Ian Lynch wrote:
I have a meeting with BECTA at the end of this month. If I say to
them I
want ODF as the default distribution format for government in
education
on the grounds its an ISO standard, anticipate the reaction. But most
schools have MSO. It'll cause chaos and we'll get a load of flack, we
are not doing that ISO standard or no ISO standard, the risk of
political backlash is too great. But if there is this small patch that
goes with any of the files that enables them to open the file in
MSO, I
take away that argument and make it far, far more likely that ODF
takes
over from .doc on all government web sites and communications. Good or
bad for OOo? Its a no-brainer.
Not so simple. To begin with, each public sector unit tends to
differ. But where they tend to unite is when evaluating change: how
much it will cost them, in cost and in work. For a lot of entities,
switching over to OOo costs too much and they'd rather stay with
MSFT; this is particularly true for the portion of power users. In
that case, making it *easier* to use MSFT with ODF abets MSFT's
position: they can have their cake and eat it too. Added to this, in
about 9 mos., maybe more, maybe less, Open XML is also likely to be
an ISO standard, with all that implies.
Is that what you want?
Me, I'd rather advance open source. I'd rather make OOo the appealing
and compelling alternative; I'd rather encourage the use of ODF, not
encourage a continuation of the status quo.
I want people to use OOo, not MS O; I am for the ODF, in part b/c OOo
uses it; my advocacy for it is not separable from my advocacy for
OOo. I am on the OASIS OpenDocument Adoption Committee as an
individual (but obviously representing OOo) and with the ODF
Alliance, also representing OOo. I give presentations on behalf of
the ODF and think it important that it be promoted. But every time I
do this I clarify that I believe the best situation is to promote
open standards *with* open source; ODF plus OOo.
I am thus against us--OOo--endorsing MSFT to use the ODF. So is
Jacqueline. But your group, the ODF Fellowship is all about
endorsing the ODF independent of anything else; fine: we know where
you stand.
Best,
Louis
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