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Microsoft OOXML: Dead Format Walking

http://blogs.eweek.com

Microsoft is citing customer demand to explain its change of heart. While I doubt that many customers asked for ODF in particular, it's clear that there's sufficient demand for better document format standards in general. Microsoft believed that it could satisfy these demands by crafting its own format, and by pushing it through the ISO standards process.

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lozz's picture
Created by lozz 14 years 2 weeks ago – Made popular 14 years 2 weeks ago
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Petition for Open Standards in European Parliament

http://www.openparliament.eu

The signatories of this petition, representing a Community for Freedom of Choice and Market in the European Union, draw the attention of the Members of the European Parliament to the current situation where the institution’s ICT systems are locked into the products of one vendor, warns about the implications of this for participative democracy and for fair competition, and calls for action to promote Open Standards and Interoperability.

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JRepin's picture
Created by JRepin 14 years 3 weeks ago – Made popular 14 years 3 weeks ago
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Interview with Marcos Mazoni, new head of free software in Brazil

http://www.northxsouth.com

Last month, President "Lula" da Silva appointed open source veteran Marcos Mazoni as the new head of the federal committee for free software implementation. This interview gets more detail from Mazoni about his experiences managing free software migrations at some of Brazil's biggest IT companies.

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ryanb's picture
Created by ryanb 14 years 5 weeks ago – Made popular 14 years 5 weeks ago
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Free Software adoption in India

http://www.downtoearth.org.in

ksta took to the streets, demanding foss be installed in computers in schools. “Teachers boycotted classes and said they would boycott examinations if the class x ‘it Practicals’ was held using the Microsoft package,” recounts V K Sasheedharan, then a ksta member. The government buckled under the pressure and finally accepted the demand to include foss in the it@school project.

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pravi's picture
Created by pravi 14 years 5 weeks ago – Made popular 14 years 5 weeks ago
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OpenOffice.org and ODF adoption in Malaysia - thumbs up!

http://www.bytebot.net

In an interesting twist (interesting for Microsoft and their OOXML apologists), about a month ago, MAMPU, the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit, decided that they were going to go OpenOffice.org and go ODF, and dump Microsoft Office by year-end 2008. This made its round around news sites, and everyone was naturally talking about it.

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snotbutter's picture
Created by snotbutter 14 years 6 weeks ago – Made popular 14 years 5 weeks ago
Category: Government   Tags:
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Humanizing Digital Technologies with Free Software & GNU/Linux ...

http://www.technologyreview.com

"Brazilian minister of culture Gilberto Gil Moreira speaks on the transformative power of digital technologies..."

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can.axis's picture
Created by can.axis 14 years 6 weeks ago – Made popular 14 years 6 weeks ago
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The Tragedy of the Anti-Commons (or Why Government FLOSS Purchasing Policy is Misapplied)

http://brendanscott.wordpress.com

Misapplication of “value for money” requirements when purchasing software results in poor value for money - Government purchasing policies for software tend to support the creation of monopolies.

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peacemaker's picture
Created by peacemaker 14 years 6 weeks ago – Made popular 14 years 6 weeks ago
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Europe's not finished with Microsoft

http://www.itpro.co.uk

"For years now, Microsoft has either failed to implement or has actively corrupted a range of truly open standards adopted and implemented by the rest of the industry. Unless and until that behaviour stops, today's words mean nothing."

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cendrars's picture
Created by cendrars 14 years 6 weeks ago – Made popular 14 years 6 weeks ago
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South Africa adopts ODF as a national standard

http://www.tectonic.co.za

The South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) on Friday approved the Open Document Format (ODF) as an official national South African standard. The adoption of ODF by South Africa opens the way for the businesses and government to adopt ODF more widely in their processes. ODF is already an international standard, approved by the International Standards Organisation, or ISO.

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mark's picture
Created by mark 14 years 6 weeks ago – Made popular 14 years 6 weeks ago
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New OOXML Scandal - A Leaked Email Surfaces in France - Updated: New Details from Norway

http://www.groklaw.net

"... Here's a computer translation of the email: «The project of RGI presented at the time of the last committee of the reference frames of October 12, 2007 had been put on standby, following the step engaged in the ISO by the ECMA concerning the OpenXML standard.

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can.axis's picture
Created by can.axis 14 years 7 weeks ago – Made popular 14 years 7 weeks ago
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Argentina considering going 100% open source

http://www.cnet.com

Argentina's congress is actively considering a bill that would require all government offices to use open-source software. It's partly a cost-saving move, and partly a way to bring the Argentine government into compliance with its software licensing

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komrad's picture
Created by komrad 14 years 7 weeks ago – Made popular 14 years 7 weeks ago
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Ecuador migrates to Free Software and Open Standards

http://www.digistan.org

"On April 10, 2008, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa Delgado signed a decree ordering that the software used by public administrations in the country be free software (and implicitly based on open standards). Fuller story in Spanish..."

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can.axis's picture
Created by can.axis 14 years 8 weeks ago – Made popular 14 years 8 weeks ago
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Free software is not politics: petitions for the Italian elections

http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com

I have been saying this for many years: free software must not be associated with an ideology or political party.

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extra's picture
Created by extra 14 years 8 weeks ago – Made popular 14 years 8 weeks ago
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Microsoft is on the Ropes in Europe

http://boycottnovell.com

A few days ago we wrote about European nations that rejected OOXML. We later showed how Microsoft/CompTIA lobbyist Jan van den Beld made implicit threats against governments that ‘dare’ to refuse and ignore OOXML.

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peacemaker's picture
Created by peacemaker 14 years 8 weeks ago – Made popular 14 years 8 weeks ago
Category: Government   Tags:
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Venezuela and the Hackers’ Revolution

http://www.dailyradical.org

"The Third International Forum on Free Knowledge was recently held in Maracaibo, Venezuela, bringing together many people interested in the development of free software worldwide. One reason Venezuela chose to host this event is that, in January 2006, their new free software law came into effect, which mandates that all government agencies migrate to free software over a two-year period.

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can.axis's picture
Created by can.axis 14 years 8 weeks ago – Made popular 14 years 8 weeks ago
Category: Government   Tags:

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