senator responds on ODF

[Tom Metro]

Back in November I wrote a letter in support of ODF to my state senator, 
Cynthia Stone Creem, and last week I received a response. Essentially, 
she doesn't take a side in the issue.

The letter starts out:

   Thank you for contacting my office in support of state government
   adopting an open document format to electronically store state
   records. I understand your views and appreciate the opportunity to
   address this matter in further detail.

The next paragraphs sums up the current situation, saying that Microsoft 
Office is used by most state government offices currently, that people 
not using Microsoft Office "sometimes have difficulty accessing" files 
created by Office, and that the Governor announced plans to switch to 
ODF. Adding that ODF "...is more compatible with other software formats 
and will help ensure that documents can be easily viewed and modified 
now and in the future as software technology changes.

It mentions the objections from persons with disabilities, the public 
hearings, and the Senate legislation that would create "...an 
information technology task force. Any proposals for changes related to 
information technologies would need to be approved by a majority vote 
from the task force." If approved, this "...could have an impact on the 
Governor's ability to implement his plans."

It then mentions Microsoft's announcement to get its Office format 
standardize (and identifies the standards body as ISO, but I thought it 
was ECMA).

The letter concludes with, "Please know that I will continue to follow 
this issue as new developments continue to arise."

It seems logic and well reasoned arguments from the tech community 
haven't been adequate to get the politicians off the fence.

  -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
"Enterprise solutions through open source."
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/