Report from 4 Nov ODF Meeting in Armonk, NY

[John Casebolt]

All -

Below find a report from one of the (for now, anonymous) attendees of  
the ODF "summit" in Armonk last week - just wanted to make sure  
everybody here knew about the meeting, and the attention that our  
little old MA controversy is causing.

JC

*November 4, 2005*

*First Report from Armonk ODF Meeting
The ODF Train is Leaving the Station*

Something of a historic meeting was held at the IBM Learning Center  
in Armonk today (preceded by a dinner the night before). I'll give  
more details over the next several days, and you should keep an eye  
out for press releases next week. But in the time allowed before my  
puddle jumper takes off from Westchester, here are some of the high  
points.

The meeting was historic in a number of ways: first, Sun and IBM have  
rarely shared a marquis in the past, and yet both have committed to  
ODF, not only publicly, but shoulder to shoulder at thise meeting as  
full partners in the endeavour. And they had lots of company today,  
including Adobe, Corel, Computer Associates, Force 6 3, Google,  
Nokia, Novell, and RedHat, not to mention Peter Quinn, Massachusetts  
CIO, Patrick Gannon of OASIS, and folks from OSI, RedMonk, and yours  
truly (among others). I'll receive a full attendance list later  
today, but picked these up during the quick introductions at the  
beginning of the meeting. In all, about 40 people were in attendance,  
including those from standards, technical, marketing, disability  
support and other disciplines.
The meeting was historic also in the remarkable degree of unanimity  
of purpose displayed. I sat through about four hours of plenary  
meetings, and three hours of the Business Strategy breakout group  
(the other two groups were Technical and Policy), and I can't recall  
a single disagreement of note during the entire day.
And finally, historic in that this was a time when you sensed that  
you could actually feel the world shift a bit from the old to the  
new, and that in the future, some things that seemed obvious in the  
paradigm you've lived your life in up to that point in time will  
never seem as obvious again.
There were a number of notable decisions, some of which I'll touch on  
briefly now, and some of which I'll return to next week as events  
planned today are put into play. Here is the quick list of those that  
I can talk about now:
1. Addressing the accessibility issue will be a major focus of events  
that will be announced shortly. There has been a commitment made to  
not only close the gap between Microsoft Office and ODF by the  
Commonwealth's deadline of January 1, 2007, but also to make ODF a  
superior alternative to Office for those with disabilities by that  
date, if not before. Look for concrete details in press releases to  
follow.
2. Peter Quinn gave us a detailed briefing of the situation in  
Massachusetts. He remains dedicated and determined to stay the  
course. By day's end, he had received the full and active support  
from all those in attendance to give him what he needs to respond  
convincingly to any and all critics.
3. Look for a joint press release from all of the major attendees  
early next week, with other announcements to follow.
Unfortunately, that's all I have time for now; the plane is leaving  
the station.
And so is ODF.


--
John Casebolt - The Open Way, LLC
john.casebolt at theopenway.net
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