Argentina Mulls Open-Source Move
,----[ Quote ]
| Argentina may become the first country in the world to require all government
| offices to use open-source software, pending the outcome of a bill recently
| introduced in the nation's congress.
`----
http://argentinadiscovery.nireblog.com/post/2008/04/13/argentina-mulls-open-source-move
With Ecaudor, Venezuela and the EU making similar moves recently (see below),
Microsoft is truly in trouble.
Last week:
Ecuador migrates to Free Software and Open Standards
,----[ Quote ]
| On April 10, 2008, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa Delgado signed a decree
| ordering that the software used by public administrations in the country be
| free software (and implicitly based on open standards). Fuller story in
| Spanish...
`----
http://www.digistan.org/forum/t-52909/ecuador-migrates-to-free-software-and-open-standards
Venezuela and the Hackers’ Revolution
,----[ Quote ]
| The Third International Forum on Free Knowledge was recently held in
| Maracaibo, Venezuela, bringing together many people interested in the
| development of free software worldwide. One reason Venezuela chose to host
| this event is that, in January 2006, their new free software law came into
| effect, which mandates that all government agencies migrate to free software
| over a two-year period.
|
| [...]
|
| The Venezuelan revolution is perhaps the first revolution in history saved by
| computer hackers and is one of the reasons the government is so very strong
| on promoting the use of free software, particularly in public administration.
| The Venezuelan government wishes never again to have vital infrastructure
| held hostage or sabotaged by agents of foreign nations.
`----
http://www.dailyradical.org/knowledge/Venezuela_and_the_Hackers_Revolution
EU: Europarlement testing Ubuntu, OpenOffice and Firefox
,----[ Quote ]
| The European Parliament's IT department is testing the use of GNU/Linux
| distribution Ubuntu, OpenOffice, Firefox and other Open Source applications,
| the British MEP James Nicholson explained last week in a letter to Italian
| MEP Marco Cappato.
`----
http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7565
Is Microsoft Now Banned from EU Contracts?
http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=697&blogid=14
Euro MP thinks Microsoft should be banned from government contracts
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/10/member-eu-parliament-asks
Green MEP says Microsoft should be excluded from EU contract awarding procedure
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/106338/from/rss09
Recent:
EC probes OOXML standards-setting process
,----[ Quote ]
| A spokesman for the European Commissioner for Competition, Neelie Kroes, told
| The Register that regulators were continuing to scrutinise interoperability
| issues related to Microsoft’s products following complaints from the
| Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) group.
|
| As part of that process, the EC formally contacted a number of national
| standards bodies, including the Norwegian Standards Institute (NSI),
| requesting more details about possible irregularities in the OOXML
| standardisation process.
|
| [...]
|
| “It must be stressed that it is not the Commission's intention to influence
| the outcome of this process, but the Commission considers it essential to
| ensure that European competition law is not violated in the course of the
| standard setting process,” he said in an email to El Reg.
|
| In January the EC began formal anti-trust probes against Microsoft in two
| cases where it was alleged that the multinational firm had abused its strong
| market position. As part of the investigation into the first case, the
| Commission said that it would scrutinise OOXML on the grounds that the
| specification doesn't work with those of competitors.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/04/ooxml_ec_investigation_iso/
Related:
EU Commission Investigating Microsoft's MSOOXML Push
,----[ Quote ]
| I hope they think to investigate the smear campaigns that seem to always
| happen to anyone on the other side from Microsoft. What happened to Peter
| Quinn was by no means unique.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080208151410252
Corrupt countries were more likely to support the OOXML document format
,----[ Quote ]
| Is this just a random coincidence? The median of the CPI index of the above
| mentioned 70 countries is 3.95. Of the most corrupted half (CPI index less
| than 3.95) 23 or 77% voted for approval (approval or approval with comments)
| and 7 or 23% for disapproval; 5 abstained. Of the least corrupted half (CPI
| index more than 3.95) 13 or 54% voted for approval and 11 or 46% voted for
| disapproval; 11 abstained - see the table below.
`----
http://www.effi.org/blog/kai-2007-09-05.en.html
|
|
