"Open Source"-ization

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[url=http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080531-ooxml-revolt-brewing-three-countries-appeal-iso-approval.html]OOXML revolt brewing? Three countries appeal ISO approval

India, Brazil, and South Africa are attempting to appeal ISO's fast-track approval of Microsoft's controversial Office Open XML (OOXML) format. The organizations representing those countries in ISO complain of process irregularities, lack of inclusiveness during meetings and debates, and insufficient time to address all of the issues and concerns raised by participants during the review process. [/url]

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[url=http://blogs.pcworld.com/communityvoices/archives/2008/06/your_second_eco.html]One of Obama's first executive acts may be to standardize all Federal offices to OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice is free, robust, stable and more than sufficient for 99 percent of government work. If any particular government office requires Microsoft Office, they'll be able to purchase it -- after explaining in a few sentences why OpenOffice is insufficient for their needs.[/url]

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[URL=http://www.hardocp.com/news.html?news=MzM0NzUsLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdCwsLDE=]Adobe Releases PDF Copyright to ISO

Adobe has released their previously-proprietary PDF format to ISO, clearing the way for standardization and making it an open format.[/URL]

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[url=http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080813-ibm-vp-office-openxml-a-dead-end-microsoft-will-back-odf.html]IBM VP: Office OpenXML a dead end, Microsoft will back ODF
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I asked Sutor if he thinks that the murky OOXML process will lead to uncertainty about standards in general. He doesn't accept that possibility and argued instead that the widespread public scrutiny received by OOXML is a sign that people are beginning to care deeply about open standards. He says that the extensive mainstream press coverage and public discussion about the OOXML decision helped to boost the visibility of ODF and increase awareness of standards-based technology. [/url]

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[url=http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8935&Itemid=1]Microsoft wins ISO standard
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The International Organisation for Standardisation said that moves by pro-open document lobby failed to get any support and the Office Open XML format should be considered an open standard. This is an important a requirement for many lucrative government contracts.

Brazil, India, South Africa and Venezuela complained that an international ballot held in April was poorly conducted and rushed them into a decision based on incomplete information. It will take several weeks before OOXML officially becomes an international standard.

It is now fairly certain that the two standards will compete for the hearts and minds of government contract departments. One wonders why this would be a bad thing. As it stands the OpenDocument format ISO is a better standard and less clunky than OpenXML.[/url]

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[url=http://www.betanews.com/article/Open_source_group_sues_Quebec_Microsoft_for_nobid_software_contracting/1220043433]Open source group sues Quebec, Microsoft for no-bid software contracting

A major problem for the development of free software is, ironically, the fact that it isn't worth anything. Not monetarily, that is, but now an open source group says its government must be forced to consider its value anyway.[/url]

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[URL=http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080910-how-the-dod-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-open-source.html]How the DoD learned to stop worrying and love open source

The House draft of the annual defense budget reauthorization bill prominently lists open source software (OSS) among the objectives that should be considered in the procurement strategy for aerial vehicle technology and veteran health systems. If the bill passes in the House, it would be the first time that the National Defense Authorization Act explicitly expresses a preference for OSS.

OSS has seen rapid public sector uptake over the past few years. Governments around the world are streamlining their technological infrastructure and reducing their IT costs by using emerging open technologies. Adopters have reported a wide range of benefits, including greater interoperability, less dependence on any single vendor, more competitive pricing, and greater flexibility.
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In a 2006 article for the journal of Military Information Technology, Payton characterized the proprietary software development model as a "broken" anachronism and argues that proprietary technologies are hindering efforts to modernize the US military. OSS would enable the military to reuse significant quantities of code across multiple applications and avoid reinventing the wheel for each new task, she says.

"Unfortunately, this kind of technological responsiveness and agility is all but impossible today, because much of the Department of Defense's software, which is central to its operations, is bound up in proprietary systems. These 'black boxes' cannot be accessed or modified by anyone but the original vendor, even though DoD nominally has rights to millions of lines of code that have cost billions of dollars to develop," she wrote in 2006. "To wage information-age warfare, we need business processes that allow us to evolve faster than our adversaries. The problem is that DoD software is acquired with the same industrial-age business processes used to acquire ships, tanks and other physical machinery." [/URL]

The DoD turning to OSS...

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Norwegian standards body implodes over OOXML controversy

Standards Norway, the organization that manages technical standards for the Scandinavian country, took a serious blow last week when key members resigned in protest over procedural irregularities in the approval process for Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) format. The 23-person technical committee has lost 13 of its members.

The standardization process for Microsoft's office format has been plagued with controversy.

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A look back at the open source victories of 2008

The past year brought some exciting advancements for the Linux operating system and open source software. Open technology continues to become more pervasive and the Linux kernel is now widely used in a multitude of mainstream products ranging from set-top boxes to mobile phones. With 2008 coming to a close, we wanted to take a minute to look at some events of significance to the open source software community.

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An odd choice to help government with open source strategy

In an effort to reduce rising government IT costs, the Obama administration could turn to open source software. Sun cofounder and former CEO Scott McNealy says that the Obama administration has asked him to prepare a paper that will address this topic and provide guidance on potential open source adoption strategies.