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Adam_Moore
Pure-blooded Human
Joined: Jul 10, 2005
Posts: 36
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 Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 8:29 pm Post subject: Good news for OpenDocument |
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The government of Massachussettes is getting ready to release their standard format for the government. And only 3 formats make the list. OpenDocument, PDF, and .txt. Guess which one is only available for sophisticated office suites. 
Here is a link to the review draft. http://www.mass.gov/Aitd/
Look in the middle for the link. My favorite part is this:
"Migration – Given the majority of Executive Department agencies currently use office applications such as MS Office, Lotus Notes and WordPerfect that produce documents in proprietary formats, the magnitude of the migration effort to this new open standard is considerable. Agencies will need to develop phased migration plans with a target implementation date of January 1, 2007. In the interim, agencies may continue to use the office applications the have currently licensed. Any acquisition of new office applications must support the OpenDocument standard."
Microsoft is out of the mix for new purchases unless they move to OpenDocument format. Heh heh heh.
I would also like to point out that .doc format was on the original draft until some of the OpenDocument and OpenOffice group people had a nice discussion with them. Now they are more enlightened.
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Adam Moore
OpenDocument Fellowship
Adam.Moore@opendocumentfellowship.org
Demand Microsoft Support OpenDocument
http://opendocumentfellowship.org/petition/ |
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sardisson
Town Crier
Joined: Feb 01, 2004
Posts: 4588
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| Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 9:39 pm Post subject: |
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Finally some traction for OpenDocument and open standards/formats on this side of the pond!
Smokey
P.S. Thanks for the nice little mention of Neo on your blog the other day
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"[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki |
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OPENSTEP
The One
Joined: May 25, 2003
Posts: 4752
Location: Santa Barbara, CA
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| Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2005 8:33 am Post subject: |
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That's actually quite interesting that the MS XML format didn't make the list...I recall some folks in the Mass legislature were trying to fudge their definition so the MS format could be valid. I guess the fact that it's still licensed might have been the Achilles heel?
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Adam_Moore
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Joined: Jul 10, 2005
Posts: 36
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| Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2005 10:58 am Post subject: |
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| OPENSTEP wrote: | That's actually quite interesting that the MS XML format didn't make the list...I recall some folks in the Mass legislature were trying to fudge their definition so the MS format could be valid. I guess the fact that it's still licensed might have been the Achilles heel?
ed |
A little info about this. After hearing about MA wanting to add the MS XML format Daniel Carrera from OpenOffice, Gary Edwards from the OASIS committee for OpenDocument and others met with the people writing this. They listened to what they had to say and seemed to understand it, because now they changed it so MS XML won't work.
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Adam Moore
OpenDocument Fellowship
Adam.Moore@opendocumentfellowship.org
Demand Microsoft Support OpenDocument
http://opendocumentfellowship.org/petition/ |
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Adam_Moore
Pure-blooded Human
Joined: Jul 10, 2005
Posts: 36
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| Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2005 9:19 pm Post subject: |
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| sardisson wrote: |
P.S. Thanks for the nice little mention of Neo on your blog the other day |
Sorry for not replying back on this, but it is no problem. Having a solid MAC platform is an important item. Even more important than a solid Linux platform I would say (unfortunately not others). Mind you this is coming from a guy that really doesn't like Apple. I know I'm just uninformed .
Really I am just excited that someone actually read my blog. 
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Adam Moore
OpenDocument Fellowship
Adam.Moore@opendocumentfellowship.org
Demand Microsoft Support OpenDocument
http://opendocumentfellowship.org/petition/ |
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OPENSTEP
The One
Joined: May 25, 2003
Posts: 4752
Location: Santa Barbara, CA
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| Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 8:50 am Post subject: |
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Here's an interesting ZDNN followup:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39216391,00.htm
I liked the part where Microsoft claimed they didn't support it due to incompatibility with earlier versions. Heck, even their own document format isn't fully compatible with earlier versions of Office!
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