Peter Quinn Open Quotations

Microsoft has remade the desktop world, ... But if you've watched history, there's a slag heap of proprietary companies who have fallen by the wayside because they were stuck in their ways. Just look at the minicomputer business, for example. The world is about open standards and open source. I can't understand why anybody would want to continue making closed-format documents anymore.

We've had an active, ongoing conversation with Microsoft since January about this, and they've been open to hearing our position, ... But I don't know one way or the other how they're ultimately going to react to this. Also, this isn't just about Microsoft. We're focusing on the formats here, not necessarily the software. But wouldn't it be nice not to have to remake the systems?

This new draft version...identifies the newly ratified OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) as our standard for office documents.

These discussions have centred on open formats particularly as they relate to office documents, their importance for the current and future accessibility of government records, and the relative 'openness' of the format options available to us.

These discussions have centered on open formats particularly as they relate to office documents, their importance for the current and future accessibility of government records, and the relative

These discussions have centered on open formats, particularly as they relate to office documents, their importance for the current and future accessibility of government records, and the relative 'openness' of the format options available to us.

It's been a combination of people trying to do the FUD factor and people sometimes don't get it, ... We've said we're going to adopt a format approved by an international standards organization effective January 1, 2007. It's not anybody's technology. It's not procurement. It's a standard. There's nothing about open source or any of the rest of it.

By adoption of a service oriented architecture focused on open standard technologies, the Commonwealth could be transformed from an IT tower of Babel to an IT United Nations,

government is creating history at a rapidly increasing rate, and all documents we save must be accessible to everybody, without having to use 'closed' software to open them now and in the future.