The Fog of War and a Ray of Light

That's quite welcome, because overall the situation has becomel very depressing, as well as predictable. It won’t be over until it’s over on March 29. Except, of course, it won’t be over then, either. The battle at then hand will simply be the next battle, as the forces withdraw briefly from the field of this last one while the votes are counted.

By now, of course, everyone is completely dug in, earplugs firmly in place, and on one is really listening to anyone with a viewpoint other than their own – they’re either tuned into Fox News or NPR, and never the channel shall be switched. It’s seems almost gratuitous, therefore, to write anything at all about OOXML, because the practical effect will be nil.

Yesterday, though, someone sent me a link to one of the most eloquent and beautiful explanations of why what I call "Civil ICT Standards" and open source software matter. That explanation was provided by South African Minister of Public Service and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi in her opening remarks at the Idlelo African Conference on FOSS and Digital Commons. You can find the full text here, as well as a link to a video of the speech itself. I’d encourage you to read or view the full speech (it’s not very long), but I will provide some excerpts below so that you can grasp the essence of what the Minister was trying to convey:

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