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[News] Government Procurement Flawed by Design, Favours Monopolies; More OOXML Spin

  • Subject: [News] Government Procurement Flawed by Design, Favours Monopolies; More OOXML Spin
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:12:12 +0100
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • User-agent: KNode/0.10.4
The Tragedy of the Anti-Commons

,----[ Quote ]
| Misapplication of “value for money” requirements when purchasing software 
| results in poor value for money - Government purchasing policies for software 
| tend to support the creation of monopolies.  
| 
| Government purchasing has effects on the price paid by citizens for the 
| product purchased. In some cases purchasing produces volume which permits  
| scale discounts and therefore a net benefit to citizens who also purchase the 
| product. However, in the case of lock in software* Government purchasing can 
| create a monopoly in the software which leads to increased costs for citizen 
| purchasers and a net detriment for society as a whole. It is not appropriate 
| for value for money policies to be assessed on a per acquisition basis when 
| software is being acquired. Doing so will almost certainly create net costs 
| for the community when considered in the aggregate.       
| 
| [...]
| 
| Government procurement can both create and reinforce a monopoly in goods and 
| services which it is acquiring. Anecdotal evidence suggests that bureaucrats 
| look at “value for money” type formulae and assess it against the cost to 
| Government on a purchase-by-purchase basis. This approach is fine in respect 
| of goods and services which are easily substitutable (such as hammers, 
| screws, cars etc). In respect of goods which are specifically designed to 
| prevent substitutability - eg devices which are not designed to be  
| interoperable it is an extremely hazardous approach. If those goods also tend 
| to be a natural monopoly (such as software in general, but particularly that 
| which is designed not to be interoperable) this approach is absolutely the 
| wrong one.          
`----

http://brendanscott.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/tradegy-of-the-anti-commons/

It's not about choosing, but about having a choice.

,----[ Quote ]
| Yes. Try to understand that fantastic quote from Yasmin Mahmood, Microsoft 
| Malaysia's (current) Managing Director. This was reported by Tech&U, which is 
| currently leading the pack as the most reliable source of Microsoft 
| propaganda. What's wonderful is that they quote Yasmin word for word without 
| questioning what she really means. It makes hilarious reading.    
`----

http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2008/04/its-not-about-c.html


Old:

The truth about Microsoft Office compatibility

,----[ Quote ]
| The Microsoft Office product team rationale for designing such a poorly 
| engineered file format known as OOXML is that, according to public statements 
| they made, they do this not because they want to advance the state of the art 
| in Office document models, but rather because they have to bring the 
| two-decade worth of legacy and bugged if not broken features into the future.    
| 
| They have a commercial reason to do so. According to their numbers, there is 
| a 400,000,000 user install base. But with the introduction of the new file 
| format OOXML and the accompanying application that they rushed out the door 
| in order to ship in line with Windows Vista, is it true that Office 2007 is 
| Microsoft's best thing since sliced bread when it comes to compatibility?    
`----

http://ooxmlisdefectivebydesign.blogspot.com/2008/02/truth-about-microsoft-office.html


Eliminating the 'Software Tax'

,----[ Quote ]
| European governments, in particular, have spent billions of dollars every 
| year in “software taxes” – in the form of licensing fees – all for the right 
| to continue to use proprietary document formats that don’t allow 
| implementation of alternative programs, and ultimately restrict access to 
| government documents by citizens who do not have the licensed software. As a  
| result, governments have been forced to continue using the same program, and 
| in business, we call that a “barrier to exit.”     
| 
| So, imagine receiving and opening a document, having the ability to read and 
| edit that document, all from a program different from that in which it was 
| created. Now imagine being able to send that document to anyone in the world. 
| That is the goal of the OpenDocument Format (ODF).   
`----

http://opensource.sys-con.com/read/498422_p.htm


South Africa, Netherlands and Korea striding toward ODF

,----[ Quote ]
| France is making the strongest move to ODF and its native office suite, 
| OpenOffice. Nearly half a million government employees are being switched to  
| OpenOffice. 
`----

http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php?id=1351236114&rid=-50


ODF Alliance hails record growth in application support for ODF

,----[ Quote ]
| In total, there are now more than two dozen ODF-supporting text, spreadsheet, 
| and presentation applications announced in the past three months 
`----

http://enterpriselinuxlog.blogs.techtarget.com/2007/10/26/odf-alliance-hails-record-growth-application-support-for-odf/


ODF a National Standard in Korea

,----[ Quote ]
| The proposal for ODF to be accepted as a Malaysian Standard by SIRIM, 
| Department of Standards Malaysia and ultimately the Minister of Science, 
| Technology & Innovation is dormant for more than a year now. Four months 
| after the Malaysian proposal went to sleep, Italy made ODF a National 
| Standard. Eight months after that, Korea has followed suit. With this Korean 
| news, perhaps the Malaysian proposal will be awakened.     
`----

http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2007/11/odf-a-national-.html


Obama Voices Support for ODF

,----[ Quote ]
| OpenDocument Format supporters are welcoming presidential hopeful Sen. Barack 
| Obama's promise to put government data online in universally accessible 
| formats should he be elected.ODF a National Standard in Korea  
`----
        
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2219248,00.asp


Open IT has arrived: US presidential candidates campaigning for it

,----[ Quote ]
| When U.S. presidential candidates start promoting their open-source and 
| open-document platforms, you know that the open-source movement has finally 
| arrived.  
`----

http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9820884-16.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5


South Africa adopts ODF as govt standard

,----[ Quote ]
| The South African government yesterday announced the adoption of OpenDocument 
| Format (ODF) as a standard for government communications. 
`----

http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?id=$id&src=digg


Malaysia formally embraces open doc format

,----[ Quote ]
| The Malaysian government today announced plans to adopt open standards and 
| the Open Document Format (ODF) within the country's public sector. 
| 
| [...]
| 
| In July this year, Japan became the first country in the Asia-Pacific region 
| to embrace open software standards. Last August, the United Nations urged 
| countries in the region to adopt the ODF.  
`----

http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62030781,00.htm


Government of Japan Embraces Open Software Standards

,----[ Quote ]
| The OpenDocument Format Alliance (ODF Alliance), the leading organization 
| advocating for openness and accessibility to government documents and 
| information, today congratulated Japan for adopting a policy under which 
| government ministries and agencies will solicit bids from software vendors 
| whose products support internationally recognized open standards.    
`----

http://www.govtech.com/gt/126612?topic=117674


Netherlands Picks ODF

,----[ Quote ]
| Frank Heemskerk, Minister of Economic Affairs, announced today that ODF will 
| be the standard for reading, publishing and the exchange of information for 
| all governmental organisations. The deadline is January 2009.  
`----

http://gotze.eu/2007/09/netherlands-picks-odf.html


OpenDocument and Qt fonts goodness

,----[ Quote ]
| Like South Africa Adopts ODF, German Foreign Office comes out in favor of ODF 
| and there are various articles going over how Holland and Belgium are 
| steadilly switching governments but also schools over to ODF.  
`----

http://labs.trolltech.com/blogs/2007/11/10/opendocument-and-qt-fonts-goodness/


Opendocument_adoption

,----[ Quote ]
| Contents
| 
|     * 1 United States
|           o 1.1 Massachusetts
|                 + 1.1.1 References
|           o 1.2 Other states and organizations in the US
|                 + 1.2.1 References
|     * 2 Europe
|           o 2.1 EU Definition of an open standard
|           o 2.2 United Kingdom
|                 + 2.2.1 Bristol City Council
|           o 2.3 Belgium
|           o 2.4 Finland
|           o 2.5 Slovakia
|     * 3 Other governments
|           o 3.1 Australia
|           o 3.2 India
|           o 3.3 Japan
|           o 3.4 Malaysia
|           o 3.5 Peru
|           o 3.6 Vietnam
|           o 3.7 Other
|     * 4 See also
|     * 5 References
`----

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opendocument_adoption

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