Open Format Bill Filed in Texas
ConsortiumInfo.org’s Standards Blog reports that an open format bill has been filed in Texas. Following Massachusetts and Minnesota, the Texas government seems headed for ODF.
The bill would require state government agencies to store their data in open document formats, and defines what it means by “open document formats.” Its definition matches Minnesota’s, and it seems clear that OpenDocument meets the criteria while MSOOXML does not.
Updegrove discusses how Massachusetts’ pioneering work has helped open the trail for other states to follow: “It will be very interesting indeed to see how this bill fares. On the plus side, the IT department of Texas will be spared the wrenching experience that the IT managers of Massachusetts suffered when they sought to put such a policy in place. Too, debate over the bill will occur in public. But on the negative, the legislators of Texas may be surprised at the magnitude of effort that lobbyists may expend on “educating” them on the issues at hand.”
Texas is the second most-populous state, and an important technology center, so the scale of this development is very significant.
LinuxWorld Australia also covers the story, and Sam Hiser analyzes it in detail.