Massachusetts:OpenDocument

I was just on the Fox News web site and I see a story By James Prendergast. But lets under stand who Prendergast master is. He is executive director of Americans for Technology Leadership, a coalition of technology professionals, companies and organizations that supports limited government regulation of technology. Microsoft Corporation is a founding member of Americans for Technology Leadership. Other founding members include Staples, Inc., CompUSA and Citizens Against Government Waste. So his whole writings on this matter is suspect. Im speaking of the plan that the state of Massachusetts has for finalizing a proposed move to an open, non proprietary format for office documents, a plan that involves phasing out versions of Microsoft's Office productivity suite deployed in the state's executive branch agencies.
Massachusetts has decided not to be locked in to any vendor in particular, because it has this idea in its head that citizens have the right to access their own documents without having to pay anyone and without restrictions as to what operating system they have to use or technical blockages to access not only now but way into the future. The OpenDocument format ensures they will always be able to open and read the documents. That is why it is a superior format for Massachusetts' governmental needs. On Friday, September 16, 2005 the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council called a meeting and at that meeting, Massachusetts very clearly told Microsoft exactly how to be included in the states new plan. Microsoft refused to support OpenDocument. When Microsoft refuses to play nicely with others, we know from history exactly what that means for us consumers. It means we get fewer choices in the marketplace. I say its time to take a stand.Guys like James P stay rich off "proprietary", thats why they will not be for anything that could save people money. "Massachusetts" keep showing others how its done.