Employees may be celebrating 30 years of Microsoft today, but 31 may be the end with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Enterprise Technical Reference 3.5 has passed its period of comment
without significant change. Situation now looks like Microsoft Office
is on its way out among Commonwealth agencies. Massachusetts has
accepted the OASIS
OpenDocument format but essentially rejected Microsoft formats,
including the Office 12 so-called “open” XML-based format. Starting on
January 1, 2007, new documents must be in the OpenDocument format.
Since Office doesn't support the format, the product would no longer be
purchased by the Commonwealth.
It's hard to understate the implications of the Massachusetts
proposal, assuming the commonwealth follows through with it. Sure,
Massachusetts is but one of 50 U.S. states, but these state CIOs are a
pretty close-knit bunch–and for good reasons. They grapple with
similar problems. Timing comes as state CIOs will renew
interoperability and open-source discussions during their annual conference next month. Day One opens with sessions on both topics.
Massachusetts could lead where some other states want to follow. . . . [Microsoft Monitor]