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Massachusetts Falls to OOXML as ITD Punts
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In a not anticipated move, Massachusetts announced today that Microsoft's OOXML formats have made the grade. The announcement was made even as it appears more questionable whether the National Body members of ISO/IEC JTC1 will conclude that the formats are good enough to be granted global standards status, and despite the fact that the ITD receive comments from 460 individuals and organizations during the brief comment period announced on July 5 - most of them relating to the inclusion of OOXML.
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In the announcement, the Information Technology Division stated, " We believe that...concerns [about OOXML], as with those regarding ODF, are appropriately handled through the standards setting process, and we expect both standards to evolve and improve.... Moreover, we believe that the impact of any legitimate concerns raised about either standard is outweighed substantially by the benefits of moving toward open, XML-based document format standards." This "Fair and Balanced - let someone else decide" decision by the new administration and Interim CIO Bethann Pepoli stands in sharp contrast to the positions taken by predecessor CIOs Peter Quinn and Louis Gutierrez, backed by then governor (and now-presidential hopeful) Mitt Romney. Both Quinn and Gutierrez insisted on including only "open standards" in the ETRM, and withstood significant pressure from Microsoft to give ground and accept OOXML prior to its adoption by ISO/IEC JTC1.
Further details and analysis are here: Full Story |
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| Shame on you Mass. |
jacog |
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Aug 4, 2007 1:36 PM |
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