Thomas R. Bruce on interoperability and legal information
Legal Information Institute ("LII") founder and director Thomas R. Bruce has begun an excellent series of blog articles on the vital role of intererability in the provision of free legal information to the world, "hacking eGovernment" as he puts it.
For those who do not know of him, Mr. Bruce is a giant in the movement to make government information available to everyone. LII is headquartered at the Cornell University School of Law and has international branches.
Private deal to approve OOXML? More evidence surfaces
Circumstantial evidence is mounting of one or more private deals having been struck to approve DIS-29500 Office Open XML ("OOXML") as an international standard, a deal that may have played a role in several key national standardization bodies changing their voting position to approve OOXML.
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OpenDocument v. 1.2 out for public review in May, South Africa says
The OASIS final committee draft of version 1.2 of the Open Document specification will reportedly be made available for public review in May and June of this year, according to a South Africa government official.
DIS-29500 reportedly approved by JTC 1
Copies of what is said to be the final vote tally on DIS-29500 Office Open XML have been circulating this morning with the results showing that OOXML has been approved as an international standard by JTC 1.
Philippines changes position on OOXML from 'no' to 'yes'
Microsoft Philippines pulled off a stirring victory of sorts as the country reversed its earlier position and voted last Friday, March 28, to approve the controversial Open XML as an international document format standard.
The Bureau of Product Standards (BPS), an agency under the Department of Trade and Industry, voted for the Philippines upon the recommendation of a technical committee composed of different local industry stakeholders.
India's Final Vote On MS Office File Standard Is 'NO'
A couple of obvious errors in regard to the correct acronym ("OOXML") and name of Office Open XML, but ---
U.S. Votes for Modified OOXML Standards
William Jackson of Government Computer News is first out the door with the story, according to Google News Alerts:
The United States has voted for approval of a modified version of the Office Open XML (OOXML) standard for business documents.
The universally accessible and interoperable specification v. 0.01
One rough measure of a public policy debate's maturation in the U.S is its entry into the realm of presidential politics. In that regard, it notable that one plank of presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obma's election campaign has committed to expanded openness in government. (Linked campaign page last visited May 10, 2008.)
The pledge of openness includes detailed technical components. They include an overhaul of the national information and communications technology infrastructure, with the appointment of the nation's first Chief Technology Officer to oversee the work. An emphasis on integration of IT systems in the nation's infrastructure is on the Obama to-do list, with explicit commitments to interoperability and to:
[m]aking government data available online in universally accessible formats to allow citizens to make use of that data to comment, derive value, and take action in their own communities.
Putting Andy Updegrove to Bed (without his supper)
In late 2007, an article by OASIS attorney Andy Updegrove claimed that W3C Compound Document Formats: [i] are non-editable formats; [ii] are not designed for conversions to other formats; and [iii] are therefore unsuitable as office formats. Updegrove could not have been more wrong.
