On Wednesday 23 August 2006 15:22 arachnid wrote:
> On Wed, 23 Aug 2006 12:32:35 +0100, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
>> Somebody is pushing an agenda here. And it's not the blind people, whose
>> 'problem' can be easily fixed.
>
> Remember the attempt in Oregon to have a bill passed that would require
> consideration of Linux for the schools? Everything looked hunky-dory right
> up until the very last minute. The bill had pretty good support but just
> before going to a vote, an anti-OSS lobbyist had a brief word with the
> Speaker of the House and he immediately tabled the bill. The legislature
> never even got a chance to vote on it.
>
> It looks like the same backdoor tactics are happening in Massachusetts.
Oh indeed.
There was the "Globe" Dirty Tricks attempt, there was the legislature
attempt, and there has been the "ODF can't cater for the blind" campaign.
(Yes, I've actually seen that - I am at a loss to explain how a *format*
can or cannot cater for the blind!)
however, "as I said at The Brighton Conference" (actually, here in cola in
response to a "Quinn is toast" posting last year) "This story has a *long*
way to run still":-)
imo one thing is for sure - the outcome in MA is not so important as the
story! By that, I mean that although I would like to see an ODF outcome,
and believe that we shall, the length and intensity of the story will prove
to have been even more important than the outcome. If MA had simply gone
ahead, we would "merely" have had a success story like that in Belgium etc.
As it is, the whole issue of lock-in, proprietary formats, Open Source,
alternatives to MS, and the whole political process of MS and American
business has been kept in the spotlight for a year already, and we are
still a long, long way from through.
The world doesn't begin and end with MA - but what is happening there has
been, and still is being, noticed and noted by all sorts of people who
really matter, very many government agencies around the world in
particular.
When all this is over, I reckon that the events in MA will be seen to have a
huge impact, *regardless* of the outcome:-)
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