A senate committee debates the practices of the Massachusetts IT office on its required move in 2007 of using software in the OpenDocument Format. Microsoft's influence on the debate is put to task by the CIO's office.The proposal to standardize on the OpenDocument Format for all state offices in Massachusetts came under scrutiny Monday, when a special committee session was called to discuss the decision.
State Senator Marc Pacheco, a Democrat, scheduled a hearing before the Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight, after expressing concern about whether the proposal violates state policies surrounding IT procurement.
The meeting is an indication that the wrangle over Massachusetts' transition to OpenDocument is far from over.
Massachusetts CIO Peter Quinn said in September that starting on Jan. 1, 2007, all electronic documents created by state employees could be saved in only two format types: OpenDocument, which is used in open-source applications such as OpenOffice.org, and the Adobe-created PDF (Portable Document Format).
OpenDocument can be used for saving documents such as letters, spreadsheets, tables, and graphical presentations. Microsoft does not support the OpenDoc format type and has no plans to do so in the foreseeable future, company officials have said. Instead, the company will make its own "Office Open XML format" the default with Office 12, which is due next year.
Since Quinn went public with his intentions, a number of Microsoft competitors have rallied around OpenDoc, announcing plans to support the format with their own products. Sun, KDE and OpenOffice.org already support OpenDoc; Corel and Novell recently announced their intentions to do so.
In the committee meeting, Pacheco acknowledged that the advisory board doesn't have the power to oversee the state's Information Technology Division's decisions, but did ask for more of a collaborative process that involved other parts of the government.
In contrast, the state's Supervisor of Public Records Alan Cote noted that he believes the ITD was wrong in stating that it is acting in accordance with the law, according to Andrew Updegrove, co-founder of Boston-based technology law firm Gesmer Updegrove LLP, an expert on standards and open source.
"More than anything, this is a turf battle between different factions within Massachusetts, and Pacheco is going to make sure Quinn isn't going to get away with it if he can help it," Updegrove wrote in his blog while attending the meeting.
Read the full story on eWEEK.com: Political Animal: Massachusetts IT Office on the OpenDoc Defensive
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