Massachusetts has named an acting chief information officer, and the state is ‘on track’ to use OpenDocument-based desktop software next year, a spokesman for the commonwealth’s governor said Thursday. Bethann Pepoli has been appointed acting CIO of the state’s Information Technology Division by Thomas Trimarco, the state’s secretary of administration and finance, according to Eric Fehrnstrom, communications director at Gov. Mitt Romney’s office.
I wonder if Microsoft will strong arm this person to the point of leaving too.
I’m not convinced even the former CIO himself would make the claim he was strong armed out by Microsoft, and I would nearly bet to the contrary.
This is however an example of an IT professional attempting to involve himself in a political matter which was beyond his level of expertise. Not at all the same required skill set.
This is however an example of an IT professional attempting to involve himself in a political matter…
Its was never a political matter – it’s a technical one. This is why some politicians and Microsoft can do nothing about this, even though politics forced him out. Everything that has happened has proved that Peter Quinn and the IT people are well within their rights to mandate what they have. As long as things don’t stop working it is not a matter for politicians, as has been proved.
This is however an example of an IT professional attempting to involve himself in a political matter which was beyond his level of expertise. Not at all the same required skill set.
I really tought it was a matter of politicians involving themeselves into an IT decision.
Edited 2006-01-07 09:52
Right a OSS advocate trying to force his choice of documents without reasonable studies on what would be best for the Peoples Socialist Republic of Massachusets.
Right a OSS advocate
Who said he was an OSS advocate? The ODF has absolutely nothing to do with open source software.
without reasonable studies
It was a technical decision, always has, always will be and that fact has been borne out. As long as they turn up in the morning and they have software available to get their work done it is not the remit of politicians, and neither is it Microsoft’s. Whether the software that they use continues to be Microsoft’s is a matter of whether Microsoft gets involved, supports the ODF and respects the decsions that MA are making.
Note that their OpenXML stuff has not been approved, nor is it likely to be from the discussions that have already taken place between various parties about ODF and Office 2003’s XML format.
trying to force his choice of documents
Microsoft has already done that with their choice of documents, and worse, you can’t use different software to interact with them. Your point is?
on what would be best for the Peoples Socialist Republic of Massachusets.
Yay, it’s all communism – which is another thing Microsoft has come up with and no one else has.
Edited 2006-01-07 17:21
Who said he was an OSS advocate? The ODF has absolutely nothing to do with open source software.
Who pushing ODF as a standard? what was the software solution proposed in order to take advantage of ODF….Open Office hrm isn’t that OSS?
Whether the software that they use continues to be Microsoft’s is a matter of whether Microsoft gets involved, supports the ODF and respects the decsions that MA are making.
I disagree Microsoft has very little to do with this issue. They didn’t step in until this ODF stuff was blown out of proportion.
Microsoft has already done that with their choice of documents, and worse, you can’t use different software to interact with them. Your point is?
Whatever I would bet that the sate of Massachusets has been using Microsoft office for at least a decade. Tell me how it would make sense to all of a sudden switch to an incompatible document format its some idiots idea of pushing his personal views with out thinking about the long term impact on the way the organization operates.
Yay, it’s all communism – which is another thing Microsoft has come up with and no one else has.
Hint: try making sense with your rebuttals you can at least exact a respectful disagreement.
Who pushing ODF as a standard?
A standard anyone can implement. There’s the difference. Who’s pushing .doc, .xls, .ppt etc. as standards?
what was the software solution proposed in order to take advantage of ODF….Open Office hrm isn’t that OSS?
Open Office uses ODF, as could Corel Office as could Microsoft Office. Nothing to do with OSS.
They didn’t step in until this ODF stuff was blown out of proportion.
Which they initiated.
Whatever I would bet that the sate of Massachusets has been using Microsoft office for at least a decade.
Oh, well that makes it alright then. You also miss my point. Microsoft can implement and get involved with the ODF t any time.
Tell me how it would make sense to all of a sudden switch to an incompatible document format
It’s incompatible because Microsoft makes it so. What will happen will be that any new documents will be produced with ODF and for others it will be a process of conversion. Not hard.
pushing his personal views with out thinking about the long term impact on the way the organization operates.
He has thought of the long term. He didn’t want the state continuing to buy software from Microsoft just because they have to. Microsoft sees themselves as inevitable as death and taxes. Many at MA now don’t.
Hint: try making sense with your rebuttals you can at least exact a respectful disagreement.
Hint: just try making sense. We’ve all heard the communist thing and it has absolutely no relevance.
“Right a OSS advocate trying to force his choice of documents without reasonable studies on what would be best for the Peoples Socialist Republic of Massachusets.”
Massachusets is going to be remembered either as forward thinking early adopters, or a ship of fools. Either way, it’s going to be entertaining to watch it unfold.
You completely miss the point. It is about getting a file format that any Office application can read/write, that the file can still be usable during decade. Try to open a Word 95 doc with Microsoft Office 2003: you will have a great chance to not be able to do. ODF is about avoiding that scenario.
Edited 2006-01-08 20:24
This is bad news for Microsoft. If Microsoft doesn’t manage Mass to stay with them, they will suffer a tremendoues loss.
They have been forced to “open” their file formats.
They have shown that there is a viable alternative, by conducting this highly visible fight in the press and elsewhere.
They have shown that they are willing to strongarm their customers (by directly or indirectly forcing Peter Quinn to resign)
If you are going to participate in highly visible fights like this you need to win. Now, they have just got bad reputation.
Imagin how much easier it would have been for them to support ODF. Then they would have had a contract in their hands, and a lot of PR for supporting open standards. They could have easyly beaten OpenOffice on things like Accessability, better support deals, discounts on other types of software, e.g. databases.