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GeekPAC to fight for information rights
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| Last year California Assemblyman Mark Leno authored AB 1668, a bill designed
| to encourage the state to adopt the Open Document Format as the standard
| format for government documents. Not surprisingly, Microsoft came out against
| the bill and it was eventually struck down in committee. CollabNet Community
| Manager and longtime FOSS supporter John Mark Walker was angry. Realizing
| that the open source community had no voice during the hearings and no way to
| fight back against the opposition's lobbyists, Walker decided to mobilize
| support from within the ranks of the FOSS community and let them do what they
| do best — rally behind a cause and prove once again that there's strength in
| numbers. So he founded GeekPAC.
|
| GeekPAC's goal is to pull together enough funding — a mere $2,200 — to file
| the necessary paperwork to be formally recognized by the Federal Elections
| Committee as a Political Action Committee (PAC). Then the group will locate
| politicians or candidates in the House and Senate who support hot-button
| technology issues like copyright reform and net neutrality. Once identified,
| GeekPAC will help support their campaigns and lobby together for change.
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http://lwn.net/Articles/293811/
Related:
Q&A: Former Mass. CIO feels 'bittersweet pride' after battles with Microsoft,
legislature
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| 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.
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http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9012760&source=rss_news50
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| 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.
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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
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