Showing headlines posted by Andy_Updegrove

In the last several days there have been several stories in the news that highlight the increasing tension between ownership of intellectual property rights (IPR) and the opportunities that become available when broader, free access to those rights is made available.

Since I posted yesterday's blog entry about Microsoft joining the ISO voting comments reconciliation subcommittee, I've received some questions about how that process works, and how long it will take.

A few days ago, I got an email from someone with news of an interesting development in the ongoing ODF saga. Pamela Jones at Groklaw got an email as well.

If you follow technology news or music news (or both), you doubtless know of an amendment to a French on-line copyright bill that would make it legal to thwart the digital rights protection (DRM) software of the fabulously successful Apple iTunes/iPod system.

As you may recall, the ODF Alliance was formed on March 3, 2006. Given that they've already had, oh, two and a half weeks to change the world, I thought I'd check out the Alliance Website to see whether they had achieved their manifest destiny yet.

Last year, the IT departments of municipalities in Massachusetts became part of a war of disinformation, and later a political football, in the battle over ODF. Now, they'll have a chance to hear the whole story, and make up their own minds what is best for them, and for their constituencies.

One of the more bizarre, but less noticed threads in the OpenDocument Format (ODF) story in Massachusetts involves whether or not the many hundreds of municipalities in Massachusetts would be required to use software that supported ODF, or at least be able to work with documents created using such software when they interacted with State government. Later this month, the CIOs of Massachusetts municipalities will have a chance to get the straight story when Peter Quinn's successor Louis Gutierrez, who is implementing ODF, and State Supervisor of Public Records Alan Cote, who is critical of ODF, appear on the same stage to give their views at a meeting of the Massachusetts Government Information Systems Association.

Boston Globe Ombudsman Richard Chacon has pledged to "examine issues of ethics and how this newspaper measures up to readers' expectations," and says he needs the help of vigilent readers. Uh, isn't the ball in his court?

I'm not a Boston Globe subscriber (I'm a Times man, myself), so it was an alert Standards Blog reader Patrick McCormick who e-mailed me to let me know that Globe ombudsman Richard Chacon had written something that I'd find interesting, and he was right. Regular readers will recall that Mr. Chacon had promised way back on December 12 of last year to look into the circumstances surrounding the writing of a Globe article that contributed to the resignation of Massachusetts State CIO Peter Quinn. No, this article is not the long anticipated report on that subject. Instead, it’s a piece titled The Ethics Project that appeared in yesterday's Sunday edition.

When it comes to politics and technology, there are always (at least) two opinions. Today, I provide the full interview with Massachusetts Supervisor of Public Records Alan Cote, whose views on ODF differ substantially from those usually expressed in the Standards Blog

One of the most vocal opponents of the OpenDocument Format (ODF) in Massachusetts has been Supervisor of Public Records Alan Cote. Cote has testified in open hearings, spoken to reporters, and communicated the views of Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin. In this extensive interview, I ask Alan for his side of the ODF story, what his concerns are, and what he thinks should happen next. Along the way, he says some surprising things, like this: " I am not opposed to ODF and I think it does show promise as one of the formats our government should use to accomplish our goals of preserving records and serving the public."

[ED: Another must read article on the nitty gritty fight for ODF with a must read interview - HC]

Massachusetts legislators on Beacon Hill today will see a demonstration of accessibility features for Office 7, but they won't see the complete picture.

Today, interested Massachusetts legislators are being offered a pre-release demonstration of the accessibility features of Microsoft's Office 2007. What I understand they will see will be a subset of Windows features used in conjunction with a subset of third party accessibility tools, configured by experts, and demonstrated by sighted technicians. What they won't see is what it would be like for someone with disabilities trying to learn how to use a new system, using new accessibility tools (assuming that the old tools in fact are ported to the new platform). Not to mention the big bills that tax payers will need to pay to purchase those tools.

[ED: The continuing, important story of OpenDocument Format - this time a MS effort to block it by demostrating its innovative technologies. Tastes good ... something like fudge. - HC]

Hard on the heels of the announcement of the government-targeting ODF Alliance comes the announcement of a new initiative: the ODF Adoption Committee at OASIS, which will work to promote ODF adoption in the broader end user community.

[ED: An interesting view of the ODF Alliance by an informed source - HC]