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[News] Aggressive Microsoft Lobbying in Massachusetts May Have Disabled Open Source Migration

New MA Governor Proposes New - and Smaller - IT Bond Bill

,----[ Quote ]
| Unfortunately for the Information Technology Division (ITD) in
| particular, and state government in general, the new bill would
| provide only a fraction of the funding that would have been provided
| under last year's legislation. As proposed by Patrick, the bond would
| offer only $95 million, rather than the $250 million originally
| proposed. According to MHT, $75 million would be dedicated to 
| planning and procurement, a further $15 million would fund a
| statewide system to mange performance and measure efficiency of
| agency databases, and $4.9 million would be given to the state
| attorney general's offices for IT projects.
| 
| As a result, it the new bill will fall far short of accomplishing
| what had long been hoped by the ITD. This follows on the heels of
| damage already done, as stated by Gutierrez in his letter of
| resignation
| 
| [...]
| 
| What does this portend for ODF in Massachusetts, and what does
| it tell us about Deval Patrick's plans for the future?
|  
| First, here's what I don't know: as you may recall, both
| Gutierrez and Microsoft lobbyist Brian Burke were appointed
| to a transition working group formed to advise governor-elect
| Patrick on IT matters.
`----

http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20070315084848194


Related:

Q&A: Former Mass. CIO feels 'bittersweet pride' after battles with Microsoft,
legislature

,----[ Quote ]
| As CIO of Massachusetts from February to November last year, Louis 
| Gutierrez had to endure most of the brunt of Microsoft Corp.'s political 
| wrath over a state policy calling for the adoption of the Open Document 
| Format for Office Applications, or ODF -- a rival to the software vendor's 
| Office Open XML file format.
| 
| [...]
| 
| Do you see any reason for there to be two standards? If you were
| starting blank-slate, there certainly would not be value to creating
| two separate standards. Over time, it has sometimes been useful to
| have the competition of two standards to keep both sides honest.
| But I don't see particular value in the long-term co-existence of
| two separate standards.
`----

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9012760&source=rss_news50


,----[ Quote ]
|    Quinn:  Almost to a person, to anybody involved or who knows about
|    the ODF issue, they attributed the story to Microsoft, right, wrong
|    or otherwise. Senator Pacheco may be a bully but I do not believe he
|    is disingenious and would stoop to such a tactic. Senator Pacheco and
|    Secretary Galvin's office remain very heavily influenced by the
|    Microsoft money and its lobbyist machine, as witnessed by their
|    playbook and words, in my opinion.
| 
|    Quinn:  I believe that the ODF decision will stand. I believe MS
|    will continue to do anything and everything it can to stop it. And I
|    know my seat wasn't even empty and they (MS) took another shot at
|    the title, to no avail. This horse is out of the barn and I see no
|    way for it to go back in. Remember, all we are asking for was and is
|    for Microsoft to commit to open and the standards process; so
|    everyone looks really bad if the plug gets pulled at this juncture. 
`----

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060119232859729


MA Governor-Elect Names MS Anti-ODF Lobbyist to Technology Advisory Group
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20061128161343183


The Sorry State of Massachusetts
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=2006111603531029


Microsoft offers schools in Mass. free software (to stop ODF adoption)
http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-6090196.html?part=rss&tag=6090196&subj=news


Microsoft plays Massachusetts Senate card
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32515


Some more links:

Politics and tech companies: follow the money
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061110-8194.html


Years of deadlock on EU patent bring some new thinking
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/08/business/patents.php

,----[ Quote ]
| "A source that deals with the company said unofficially that Gates
| proposed Microsoft's Digital Rights Management technology as a national
| standard to fight piracy at the governmental level."
`----

http://www.kommersant.com/p719683/r_528/


Leaked letter warns of open source 'threat to eco-system'
http://www.techworld.com/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=7109


Study: open source needs official support; Lobbyist disagrees with "flawed"
conclusions
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061017-8011.html


Report Says Nonprofits Sold Influence to Abramoff
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101200889.html


Open Source Foes In Bed With Abramoff
http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/12/2036223&from=rss


EU official joins consultancy serving Microsoft
http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2006-10-03T134311Z_01_L03693228_RTRIDST_0_TECH-MICROSOFT-OFFICIAL.XML&rpc=66&type=qcna


US ambassador to the EU was former Microsoft lobbyist
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34706


US politicians go to bat for Microsoft
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/26/microsoft_eu_political_lobbying/


Changing the Report, After the Vote
http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/01/commission

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