Acting MA CIO Appointed, ODF A Go 83
Andy Updegrove writes "Massachusetts has appointed ITD COO Beth Pepoli as the acting CIO of the Commonwealth. At the same time, the Governor's Communications Director, Eric Fehrnstrom, has made the clearest statement yet that it is ODF that the new CIO will be implementing: 'There have been no changes in the commonwealth's published OpenDocument rules, and we are still on track for a January 2007 implementation.' We reported on the resignation of Peter Quinn in December.
acronym hell (Score:4, Funny)
Re:acronym hell (Score:2, Funny)
Re:acronym hell (Score:2)
Re:acronym hell (Score:2)
Now, who wants to go get a BEER?
Re:acronym hell (Score:1)
(Three Letter Acronyms, Bigger Four Letter Acronyms, and Even Bigger Five Letter Acronyms, for the uninitiated)
Re:acronym hell (Score:2)
if(dead(horse)) { beat(horse); }
fork();
Couldn't help it.
Re:acronym hell (Score:2)
Re:2nd Post Bitches! (Score:3, Funny)
If you'd of read the FAQ and TPS Report you'd be ITK and not MIA.
Re:2nd Post Bitches! (Score:1)
This just in! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:This just in! (Score:2)
Excuse me, sir. Seeing as how the VP is such a VIP... shouldn't we keep the PC on the QT, 'cause if it leaks to the VC... he could end up an MIA, and then we'd all be put on KP.
Summary of What ODF is/means (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Summary of What ODF is/means (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Summary of What ODF is/means (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Summary of What ODF is/means (Score:3, Insightful)
Umm, a casual observer point of view is MS Office doesn't follow OpenDocument formatting so by saying the state will comply with ODF, they are giving MS the finger.
An intelligent casual observer point of view is that a customer requested a better product, and their current supplier (instead of giving it to them) tried to get them fired. Imagine if McDonalds was supplying food for school lunches and the school asked for healthy food that met certain dietary requirements. You could well get a situation li
Re:Summary of What ODF is/means (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Summary of What ODF is/means (Score:1, Informative)
Groklaw (Score:5, Informative)
What it means for the commonwealth of Massachusetts: sovereingity.
Re:Groklaw (Score:2)
Nice rhetoric there, RMS.
Re:Groklaw (Score:1, Redundant)
Re:Summary of What ODF is/means (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Summary of What ODF is/means (Score:2)
This is the kind of stuff that is making the crowd at Groklaw less and less useful to me. It used to be just about the facts. Now, all the facts are still presented (which is why I still visit), but it is usually wrapped up with some opinion based retoric where Microsoft is to blame for every bad thing that happens out in the world.
Where are the facts that t
Re:Summary of What ODF is/means (Score:2)
Re:Summary of What ODF is/means (Score:1)
Nice job! [demon.co.uk]
Re:Summary of What ODF is/means (Score:1)
Commercial Analogy (Score:2)
Imagine you're the procurement guy for a mid-sized company. Not huge, but not insigificant either. You use some product from an outside vendor, which everyone pretty much agrees sucks, but uses anyway. You recommend to your boss one day that the company try to negotiate with the vendor to make it suck less, and if they won't do this, dump the vendor for some alternative.
So the vendor, which is a company bigger than yours, gets wind of your idea
Re:Commercial Analogy (Score:1)
Bad Link (Score:1)
Re:Bad Link (Score:1)
Re:Bad Link (Score:1)
A dose of their own medicine? (Score:1)
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Since when do states have CxOs? (Score:5, Insightful)
It just maintains an oprganizations ability to access their own documents without waiting for a corporation to create some sort of backwards compatible solution on THEIR timeline rather than the states timeline.
All in all a solid decision in theory. How it is implemented however can be an entirely different matter but conmsidering the intelligence and forethought that went into making this decision in the first place, it seems that implementation should be equally well thought out.
Re:Since when do states have CxOs? (Score:1)
And, perhaps, more to the point, it allows the citizens of the state the same.
KFG
Re:Since when do states have CxOs? (Score:2)
Re:Since when do states have CxOs? (Score:2)
That's not what worries Microsoft. After all, everybody has been able to use RTF for storage for ages.
The problem is that OOo provides a successful "open source implementation of a public standard", thus "embrace and extend" tactis won't work.
When Microsoft (badly) supports a public standard of its own (as RTF is) Microsoft has nothing to worry about.
When a third party supports a public standard without a succesful open source implementation, a privative
Re:Since when do states have CxOs? (Score:2)
Not to be reading too much into all this, but I read it thus:
1. T
Re:Since when do states have CxOs? (Score:1)
Re:Since when do states have CxOs? (Score:2)
The fact that it is not widely adopted has nopthing to do with it being MAJOR. I think the functionallity is far more important.
Re:Since when do states have CxOs? (Score:2)
The fact that it is not widely adopted has nopthing to do with it being MAJOR. I think the functionallity is far more important.
Maybe public sector works differently in the US, but in the UK there's a strong chance tha
Re:Since when do states have CxOs? (Score:1)
Re:Since when do states have CxOs? (Score:2)
Aside from that, the GUI is extremely similar, I switched to using Open Office and everything is practically in the exact same place as with Office appl
Re:Since when do states have CxOs? (Score:1)
Re:Since when do states have CxOs? (Score:2, Interesting)
The county I'm in (not in MA) has very recently (within the last 12 months) created a CIO position and filled it.
I'm guessing the reason for this is because the county executive wanted someone in charge of the government's technology needs that could be removed or replaced at will (this is a caveat of an apointed position). The way the organization is currently set up, there's a separate Information Systems department and the head of IS is a civil servant and can't be removed or
Re:Since when do states have CxOs? (Score:2)
Re:Since when do states have CxOs? (Score:2)
Perhaps, but perhaps you're also reading too much into the name. Would you feel better if the position was exactly the same, with the same person in it, but the title was Secretary of Technology? Or Minister of Administration? Or Almighty King And Ruler Of All That Is Digital And Government Owned?
The blurring of lines between government and corporations is only problema
Re:Since when do states have CxOs? (Score:1, Troll)
A Hierarchy of Control and Influence
multinational corporations
domestic corporations
acolytes of Satan (a.k.a. professional lobbyists, and inherited political dynasties)
national governments
state governments
local governments
clueless masses
Subservient organizations mimic their superiors in this
Oh My God! (Score:5, Funny)
I need help! I understood that!!!
Yeah, but... (Score:3, Funny)
I need help! I understood that!!!
I think it could have used another 'Go':
"Acting MA CIO Appointed, ODF A Go Go"
Re:Oh My God! (Score:1)
You think you've got troubles, brother - in fact, I didn't understand it, but pretended like I did sitting here at home alone in my office. "Great," says I, "what a windfall!"
And then I had to read the article to figure it out. Who on EARTH am I trying to impress here? How square are you if you try to outnerd yourself in an otherwise empty room?
i didn't understand the title (Score:1)
in which case i understood perfectly
Ob Good Morning Vietnam (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Ob Good Morning Vietnam (Score:1)
2006 - the years of open source. (Score:1)
2006 will be another year of fighting for F/OSS and ODF survival. So here's too a new year in the trenches.
A gloss on the story (Score:5, Interesting)
OpenDocument is a published set of standards for office-type documents.
This differs from the Microsoft Office formats in that they're fully documented, legally unencumbered, and reasonably easy to make use of (something the MS Office formats are, in spite of repeated claims of being "open", have never actually been in any substantive way.)
This is important to the Commonwealth (= State) of Massachusetts as it recognizes it will need to be able to read it's digital files for decades, indeed centuries, into the future. MS Office and like applications have proven to be unable to read documents written by versions only a few years old.
However it is hoped that by adopting a non-commercially-controlled standard files will be able to be read by applications yet undeveloped, from any vendor or source, without legal complexity.
The other advantage is this also "levels the playing field" for all other applications by breaking the MS Office Format lock, and will thus enable government entities and those they interact with with stop paying the "Microsoft Tax".
Microsoft has complained that this format excludes their products. It doesn't, they can develop a converter the same they have for all of the other competing formats their products read & (sometimes) write to.
Microsoft has also taken steps to get their formats also set as a standard. Whether whatever ECMA eventually publishes is actually useful is an open question but has been clearly driven by this situation.
Microsoft has also employed their PR & lobbying arms, having front organizations distribute disinformation about OpenDocument, it's effects, goals, etc.
The most visible supporter of Massachusetts adopting OpenDocument was a civil servant, Peter Quinn.
He was recently investigated for possible misuse of funds. This story received unusually prominent coverage by the leading local newspaper, on their front page.
The without-cause finding received little coverage but the employee decided he wasn't interested working under this level of personal attack and has left civil service.
The State Governor is about to run for US President and has a history of w ^H h ^H o ^H r ^H i ^H n ^H g accepting campaign contributions from interested parties, then making dubious appointments and policies.
It was widely suspected the Governor would be announce a convenient policy change after Peter Quinn left (costs to run for President!)
This story is that the policy won't change. Or at least, that is the story today. How aggresively the policy is implemented is another question, or if this policy will even stand once general attention to it has waned.
The other good news is that many other levels and jurisdictions of governements have identical concerns about using MS's formats and are themselves considering alternatives, open formats, etc.
Anonymous Cowards (Score:1)
If you ignore good information just because it comes from an anonymous source then you are only sabotaging yourself. There is no other outcome to the situation than you having a smaller pool of information to look at, so your view is narrower than that of others. You may think you are avoiding a lot of garbage but I guess you will never know if you completely block it out. You even need to un
I Was Getting A Little Worried (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, that's good to hear. I was starting to wonder if the new interm CIO would be a friend of Redmond and would start to turn MA against ODF. Good for them to stick to their principles.
How "standard" is ODF? (Score:2)
Re:How "standard" is ODF? (Score:4, Informative)
Correct me if I am weong[sic], but ODF is only used by OOo and Suns Staroffice (which is the same thing, in a box, with phone support), so even though the format is open, which is undoubtably good, isnt it just locking into Sun because no one else reads / writes ODF?
OK, you're wrong. ODF is an open format, thus no lock-in. Anyone can and will implement it. Koffice and WordPerfect have both announced that upcoming versions of their products will support it. OpenOffice is open source, so any company can modify and sell support for it. Even MS can support the format easily, they just don't want to because the benefits it brings, like the ability to migrate easily to other formats, might not allow them to gouge customers as easily. The lock-in part of the .doc format is that no one except MS can read/write it perfectly (and not even MS between versions).
Moving to ODF is smart because it is not a lock-in. In five years when MA wants to evaluate new word processors, they can look at the features and prices of at least four different providers and choose the best fit, without worrying if they can read old files and without worrying about migration costs.
Re:How "standard" is ODF? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:How "standard" is ODF? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's just a gzipped XML format - very simple to process.
It would be a simple (but not trivial) task to write a converter to ODF, and any reasonable programmer could do it in a day or two. I'm tempted to write one in RealBASIC just for fun.
Well... not a *lot* of fun, but fun nevertheless...
Re:How "standard" is ODF? (Score:1)
No read this [wikipedia.org].
Re:How "standard" is ODF? (Score:1)
Ok, you're wrong.
For starters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_applications_ supporting_OpenDocument/ [wikipedia.org]
Re:How "standard" is ODF? (Score:2)
Is it just me? (Score:2)
Fehrnstrom (Score:1)
Re:EWeek comments on this subject (Score:2)
Good thing too... (Score:1)