Opinion: State's call for 'open' format for stored documents looks like little more than a harmless swipe at Microsoft.The decision by the People's Republic of Massachusetts to require an "open" format for the storage of state documents is a curious one. It seems to be as much about punishing Microsoft as it is the laudable goal of making information more accessible. Microsoft should accede to the state's demand that it open its file formats, not because Massachusetts is demanding it, but because there isn't a good reason not to.
Effective Jan. 1, 2007, Massachusetts CIO Peter Quinn has designated two acceptable formats for documents created by state workers: The OpenDocument format used by the OpenOffice 2.0 suite and Adobe Acrobat's PDF format. As PDF is primarily a read-only format, most day-to-day storage would presumably be in OpenDocument.
Under Quinn's order, Microsoft formats, though supported by free readers as well as competitive applications like WordPerfect and OpenOffice are not considered "open" and cannot be used by the state's workers after the 2007 deadline.
Some observers see this as a move by the state toward adoption of OpenOffice as the its standard desktop productivity suite, though it also appears that if Microsoft were to add the ability to read/write the OpenDocument format to Microsoft Office that it could remain on state desktops. Microsoft could also, of course, open its existing file formats for use by everyone.
As for the punishment angle, you'll remember that the Bay State was among those that along with the federal government sued the software giant; a battle that ended with barely a slap on Microsoft's wrist. Massachusetts is also the home, even the birthplace, of the free software movement, which Quinn's anti-Microsoft rule would certainly help.
Click here to read David Coursey's take on Google's real business adversaries.
For the purpose of this discussion, let's suppose Mr. Quinn can actually enforce the edict he's set forth. I wouldn't take odds on that, but for now I'm willing to give the guy benefit of some considerable doubt.
Read the full story on eweek.com: Massachusetts Fights a Losing Battle
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