Please forgive tardiness of this notice. New York State will
likely decide on a Statewide Official Standard Jumbo Office Suite
Format next year. Dr. Melodie Mayberry-Stewart, Chief
Information Officer for the State of New York, and Head of Task
for this decision, has called for advice from New York State
residents. The deadline for getting comments in is
5:00 pm Eastern Standard Time
Friday 28 December 2007
The main issue here is that Microsoft is attempting to have their
fraud "OOXML" declared an Official New York State Standard for
all state government documents stored on computers. OOXML is not
a standard format. Indeed today, no software writes OOXML, and
no software reads OOXML. OOXML has no published documentation,
despite Microsoft's claims. But even if, one day, some Microsoft
software writes and reads files claimed to be in OOXML format,
New York State should not accept any format controlled by a
private interest. New York State should not force any format
which, in practice, can only be manipulated by source secret
software, on any resident.
The call for comments, which is a long two part document, gives
evidence that Dr. Melodie Mayberry-Stewart will take seriously
careful clear comments. I ask defeatists on our side to consider
that Dr. Melodie Mayberry-Stewart refers to Groklaw in the Call
for Comments.
Personal note: In my comment, I will suggest extending the
deadline, and I will suggest including in the formal evidentiary
material all public court records of Microsoft's decades long
standards and license swindles.
Below find quotes from, and pointers to, a Slashdot discussion,
and the Official Call for Comments.
From
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/18/2245237
<blockquote>
New York Decision On ODF Vs. OOXML Approaching
Posted by kdawson on Tuesday December 18, @08:08PM
from the choose-wisely-young-jedi dept.
Software Government IT christian.einfeldt writes "In August of
2007, the State of New York passed legislation requiring its CIO,
Melodie Mayberry-Stewart, to gather information on the advantages
and disadvantages of adopting either ODF or OOXML as a document
standard, and to report her findings by 15 January 2008. As part
of her duties under that legislation, the CIO issued a Request
For Public Comment to get feedback on the topic. The deadline for
that public comment is 28 December 2007 so there is still time
for the Slashdot crowd to be heard."
</blockquote>
Here is the prologue to the full call for comments, from
http://www.oft.state.ny.us/oftnews/erecords-study.htm :
<blockquote>
CIO/OFT Request for Public Comment (RFPC)
Description
Request for Public Comment - A study concerning electronic record policy for New York State.
RFPC # 122807
In its 2007 session, the New York State Legislature directed NYS
Chief Information Officer/Director of the Office For Technology,
Melodie Mayberry-Stewart, to gather stakeholder input regarding
the mechanisms and processes for obtaining access to and reading
electronic data so that such data can be created, maintained,
exchanged, and preserved by the state in a manner that encourages
appropriate government control, access, choice, interoperability,
and vendor neutrality.
Specifically, the law requires:
"The director shall study how electronic documents and the
mechanisms and processes for obtaining access to and reading
electronic data can be created, maintained, exchanged, and
preserved by the state in a manner that encourages appropriate
government control, access, choice, interoperability, and vendor
neutrality. The study shall consider, but not be limited to, the
policies of other states and nations, management guidelines for
state archives as they pertain to electronic documents, public
access, expected storage life of electronic documents, costs of
implementation, and savings. The director shall solicit comments
regarding the creation, maintenance, exchange, and preservation
of electronic documents by the state from stakeholders, including
but not limited to, the office of the state comptroller, the
office of the attorney general, the state archives, and the state
historian. The director shall also solicit comments from members
of the public. The director shall report findings and
recommendations to the governor, the speaker of the assembly, and
the temporary president of the senate on or before January
fifteenth, two thousand eight."
Laws of 2007, Chapter 477 (codified at New York State Technology Law - 305(4))
CIO/OFT is issuing this RFPC to help direct the findings and
recommendations of the required study.
The RFPC is in two parts, an initial list of general questions,
and a second portion with very detailed questions. CIO/OFT
designed it this way with the hope that including general
questions might elicit greater input from members of the public
interested in the broader issues but not necessarily concerned
with the more granular aspects of electronic records creation and
preservation.
All stakeholders are encouraged to submit responses to all or
parts of the RFPC, irrespective of whether they currently do
business with or intend to participate in future procurements by
CIO/OFT and/or the State of New York. No contract will be awarded
based on responses to this RFPC. Response Instructions
Responses are due by: December 28, 2007, 5:00 PM EST
Responses should be in writing, preferably sent by electronic mail to:
Darlene Van Sickle, Principal Attorney
New York State Office for Technology
State Capitol, ESP - PO Box 2062
Albany, NY 12220-0062
FAX: (518) 486-7923
E-mail: erecords-study.DeleteThis@oft.state.ny.us
</blockquote>
Part II of the questions is at
http://www.oft.state.ny.us/oftnews/FINAL_e-record_study_RFPC.Part%20II.pdf
For more information about the Open Document Format see
http://www.odfalliance.org
Jay Sulzberger
Corresponding Secretary LXNY
LXNY is New York's Free Computing Organization.
http://www.lxny.org
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