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Massachusetts leads revolt against Microsoft
State offices required to begin storing records in OpenDocument format
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BOSTON - The Revolutionary War started in Massachusetts, and now the state is firing some opening rounds in a revolt against Microsoft Corp. that seeks an open, proprietary-free format for storing electronic documents.
Gov. Mitt Romney's administration has directed state government's executive offices to begin storing new records by Jan. 1, 2007, in a format that challenges Microsoft's market-dominating Office software, which isn't yet designed to support the new standard.
Massachusetts is the first state to take the step, but others are closely watching a fight drawing comparisons to the battles at Lexington and Concord that opened the Revolution.
"It may be the technological equivalent to the shot heard 'round the world," said Joe Wilcox, a Jupiter Research analyst. "If Massachusetts follows through with this plan, it will be a radical departure from how Microsoft and other businesses work with state governments."
Massachusetts' shift to the so-called OpenDocument format seeks to ensure the state's electronic records can easily be read, exchanged and modified now and in the future, free of licensing restrictions and compatibility problems as software evolves.
Microsoft and other critics of the change have warned in public hearings that the state is narrowing its options by banking on an untested format that may not work with many of the state's Office-based computer systems.
The Redmond, Wash.-based company also argues the switch will hurt citizens and businesses using Office who may find state records don't translate well when they read them with their software. (MSNBC is a Microsoft - NBC joint venture.)
Among the programs that do fully work with the OpenDocument format are Sun Microsystems Inc.'s StarOffice and free products such as OpenOffice.
Microsoft is trying to stem the rebellion's spread to other state governments and the private sector. Businesses sometimes follow the lead of government database managers, and software vendors try to tailor their products to government clients' preferred format.
"There is a lot at stake for Microsoft," said David Smith, a Gartner Inc. analyst. "If this were to become a tremendously successful initiative, it could perhaps open the floodgates to other governments and business enterprises doing the same thing."
Similar proposals in Oregon and Texas have been shot down. But officials in several other states including Rhode Island and Wisconsin continue to express interest in moving to the new data standard, said Jack Gallt, assistant director of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers.
Peter Quinn, Massachusetts' chief information officer, testified at a recent legislative hearing that the switch to OpenDocument aims to transform the state from an information technology "Tower of Babel to an IT United Nations."
The move will affect about 50,000 desktop PCs used by state government, many now equipped with Office software.
Quinn has said computer systems using Office will be retained and not dismantled unless a cost-effective way is found to replace them. Agencies using Office software can continue doing so, as long as they begin saving documents in OpenDocument format.
The switch involves only agencies within the executive branch, and doesn't apply to courts, the Legislature, and constitutional offices. It also doesn't apply to the state's Microsoft-based e-mail system.
Massachusetts isn't alone in its campaign. The European Union and U.S. Library of Congress have in principle embraced OpenDocument as their preferred format.
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