Microsoft Bullying Defeats ODF Legislation
Microsoft has successfully defeated a number of attempts to mandate ODF format documents for official U.S. State documents. Thanks to heavy lobbying by the Redmond giant, bills in California, Connecticut, Florida, Texas and Oregon have all been shelved, stalled indefinitely or tossed out the window entirely.
Only Minnesota passed pro-ODF legislation and even then it was a severely watered-down bill which merely calls for the state’s IT officials to look into the debate.
Computer World has a rather long piece on Microsoft’s efforts to defeat the bills by creating mock grassroots support, including a series of letters supposedly “written by small businesses against the proposed legislation — letters that turned out to have been penned by Microsoft resellers and partners.”
The letters were sent after an online petition and an open letter both failed to garner any support for Microsoft’s proprietary format OOXML — the company’s ODF competitor.
But the real problem may have been with the legislators who didn’t understand the debate.
According to some legislators quoted in the Computer World story, the lawmakers felt out of their elements in making decisions on technical issues, which shouldn’t really be surprising, but is disheartening nonetheless.
Don Betzold, a Democratic state senator who sponsored the open formats proposal in Minnesota tells Computer World that he and other politicians felt overwhelmed by the technical jargon presented by each side.
“I wouldn’t know an open document format if it bit me on the butt,” Betzold said. “We’re public policy experts. [Deciding technical standards] is not our job.”
But despite the setbacks, Marino Marcich, executive director of the ODF Alliance, believes the legislative fight has only begun.
