Como se a MS estivesse precisando de novos (e relevantes) inimigos...



"Not only has the Commonwealth of Massachusetts catapulted itself to a leadership position when it comes to the mixture of technology and democratic government, the ball is actually still in Microsoft's court. In fact, Microsoft has not one, but two options to assure itself that Microsoft Office will still be an option for the state's 173 agencies. However, in the bigger picture, what most people may not realize is that Massachusetts is the new ground zero for the biggest battle this industry has seen in years. In what I can only describe as one of the most masterful games of industry chess I've seen in years, some of Microsoft's biggest competitors including IBM, Sun, and Adobe took advantage of a tool that until now, may not have been available in their arsenals: Democracy. With dozens, perhaps hundreds of other governments and organizations monitoring the Massachusetts situation — a situation that's easy to emulate — the Microsoft franchise now faces a new and very real threat."

Por David Berlind, da ZDNet.

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Update: States are under enormous pressure to open up IT systems and preserve public records in open, readable-by-posterity formats. This pressure comes from three sources: FOIA-like laws, eGovernment, and archivists. FOIA and its state counterparts make nearly every document a government employee creates a "public record." eGovernment argues that government processes should be open to all–even those without Microsoft Office. Archiving government records in a way that they are accessible in 20, 50, or even 100 years is a real concern for government agencies.

De post do Phil Windley.

pv: Depois de tanto tempo descobriram que documentos de 'domínio público' eram disponibilizados em formato 'proprietário'? Estranho. Mas antes (muito) tarde do que nunca (mais).