____/ Mark Kent on Thursday 19 July 2007 08:58 : \____
> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>> HP, MIT bolster DSpace open-source archives
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>| Open-source advocates claim that the Microsoft-championed format is not as
>>| open as it should be and doesn't compare well to rival formats such as the
>>| community-developed OpenDocument Format (ODF).
>>|
>>| "If it were, Microsoft wouldn't need to make Novell and Xandros and
>>| Linspire sign NDAs (nondisclosure agreements) and then write translators
>>| for them," Pamela Jones, an open-source expert and editor of the Groklaw
>>| blog, wrote recently.
>>|
>>| But the National Archives said that it is not wedded to any particular data
>>| format and that all technology options are being considered at this time.
>> `----
>>
>> http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9592_22-6197345.html
>
> Look at this, from the *joint* National Archives and /Microsoft/ press
> release:
>
> Adam Farquhar, Head of eArchitecture at the British Library and
> co-chair of the Office OpenXML standards committee said:
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> |
> |
> So this guy, paid for by *our* taxes, is working for Microsoft
> to promote their proprietary formats. Now look at this:
>
> "Microsoft has shown considerable initiative working with The National
> Archives, The British Library and others to increase our ability to
> ensure access to today's digital information tomorrow. This announcement
> represents an important step and shows the sort of value that effective
> collaboration between public and private organisations can bring to the
> challenge of preserving our nation's heritage."
>
> Which you can sum up as:
> "we're putting national heritage, at tax-payer's expense, into
> the hands of the world's greatest monopolist, to ensure access
> to data in the future".
>
> So we, the taxpayer, have to *pay* to have *our* data locked into a
> proprietary format which will never be readable on standard platforms,
> supplied by a company which cannot even manage to add a proper ODF
> format to its office suite, and pushed by a guy, Adam Farquhar, who *we*
> pay for, who chairs an OOXML "standards" committee.
>
> This is just beyond anything you could imagine. Can we get this guy
> moved to a more suitable job - in Microsoft, say?
They already have enough astrotrurder. That division is overstaffed. Such
things need wider exposure. I put your quote in BoycottNovell, which is
getting amazing traffic these days. Mind if I post your findings (above) as
well? With or without attribution?
--
~~ Best of wishes
everytime you say things like this i just think of that cult of people
who send around .doc files. i dont want to communicate with people who
talk in .doc format, but they do not wish to use something else, so
they discredit those without word. --Ed, c.o.l.a.
|
|
