March 3rd, 2006
Saving government docs with OpenDoc
Here’s the problem. Government agencies create documents in commercial software. Commercial software saves documents in proprietary formats. Proprietary formats either require specific, often expensive software, to open them, or increasingly likely over time, become extremely difficult to read at all.
The Times reports on a brewing battle over the future of electronic documents. Launched yesterday, the OpenDocument Format Alliance is a coalition of 30 companies, trade groups, academic institutions and professional organizations. ODFA members include Sun, IBM and several universities.
"The goal is to ensure that the largest number of people possible are able to find, retrieve and meaningfully use government information," said Patrice McDermott, deputy director of government relations for the American Library Association, a member of the alliance.
The problem, she said, is bad and getting worse. She noted that the National Archives and Records Administration was engaged in a costly project so the electronic documents it saves from federal agencies can be opened and read.
On the other side is OpenXML, created by Microsoft and supported Intel, Apple, Toshiba, BP and the British Library.
OpenDoc vs. OpenXML was at the heart of a major squabble in Massachussets last year, where CIO Peter Quinn tried to standardize state government on OpenDoc and would up being forced to resign.
