Massachusetts Chooses OpenDocument
Articles are appearing all over the web about the recently announced decision of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to standardize all office-type documents on the OpenDocument format. The Enterprise Technical Reference Model PDF is available for download and public comment is requested until September 9.
Slashdot picked up the story.
Groklaw has an excellent piece.
One of the earliest reports appeared at LXer.
The Financial Times (UK) also reports.
The Information Technology division of Mass.gov highlights the decision on the front page of its site.
Peter Quinn, Chief Information Officer of Massachusetts writes,
“After receiving comments from the public regarding our proposed Open Formats standards earlier this year we have had a series of discussions with industry representatives and experts about our future direction. These discussions have centered on open formats particularly as they relate to office documents, their importance for the current and future accessibility of government records, and the relative “openness” of the format options available to us.
This new draft version of the Data Formats section of our Enterprise Technical Reference Model (beginning on page 16) identifies the newly ratified OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) as our standard for office documents. Additional open and acceptable formats are also identified for other types of documents. We are once again asking for your feedback and comments before finalizing the standards document. Thanks in advance for your input.”