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: [EMAIL PROTECTED] </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 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Corresponding Secretary LXNY LXNY is New York's Free Computing Organization. http://www.lxny.org _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
