well, I don't believe in scare tactics like Microsoft but I think that just stating that they are not compliant and that they will do a public service if they will use an open standard is enough for first (or second) email. You can also state, that although their processes are not compliant (windows). you at least ask them to change the format of the file to a standardized format. I don't really think (or know) if .CSV is well standardized because the way office can choose were to put commas or were to position columns is not written any ware and for all we know may vary from version to version of office. The other thing is that when you save a file in csv excel tell u that it does not support multiple sheets. And last, when you will probably open a csv in your software it will ask you how to extract the data because unlike XML you can't know from a comma what the content means. After going over the list of possible formats, it seems very likely that Microsoft have gone to a great length to make it difficult for you to work in a another format or software. All in all, I think this require a more global approach like contacting your Knesset representative to revise the government thinking about public documentation and processes.
* - * - * Tzahi Fadida [EMAIL PROTECTED] Technion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fax (+1 Outside the US) 240-597-3213 My Cool Site: HTTP://WWW.My2Nis.Com * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * WARNING TO SPAMMERS: see at http://members.lycos.co.uk/my2nis/spamwarning.html > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Tzafrir Cohen > Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2002 6:12 PM > To: Christoph Bugel > Cc: Tzahi Fadida; linux il > Subject: Re: israrail's xls-only schedules > > > On Thu, 23 May 2002, Christoph Bugel wrote: > > > On 2002-05-23, Tzahi Fadida wrote: > > > I think you are missing the point here. > > > Ever since I read the Peruvian government minister, I > realized that there is a good chance that > > > the government is <breaking its/>non comliant with the > law of freedom of information. > > > Meaning, any document or processes of information the > government create and store, must > > > be transparent to the citizens. > > > By using closed source software or non-standard formats > it theoretically break its own laws. > > > I think that this is the right direction in the matter, > though I am not certain about any of this. > > > Are there lawyers in the house? > > > > > > Yes, a great article :-) > > ( http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-05-06-012-26-OS-SM-LL ) > > But which spreadsheet format should we ask them to use? > (of course, that should be *their* problem.. .csv would have been ok in > this simple case.) You mean that it would have been smarter to approach them with: "I have Office95 (97?) instaled, and I can't read your time table. -- Tzafrir Cohen mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.technion.ac.il/~tzafrir ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] ================================================================To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
