Found among the picks from Andy Updegrove:

Open standards. Our helpers are right at home in this discussion. Standards are inherently political. The idea of widely adopted open standards is nirvana. Ever since Computer Associates, HP, DEC and Amdahl all challenged IBM's proprietary standards in the dark ages, and with the advent of Windows on PCs, standards have been set by the market. Volume adoption is equal to a standard. The problem with this approach is the huge tax in the form of higher prices when a vendor-provided industry standard monopolizes the market.

There are no true altruists in the standards game.

Every urge government has is to extract the setting of standards from the market and establish them for the common good, as monopolies are inherently anticompetitive. The problem is that in fast-changing, evolving spaces - like IT - bureaucratic or communal attempts at setting standards are hopelessly slow.

Adding an older quote to this, Adam Smith wrote in The Wealth of Nations (1776):

"I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good."

This was found among the quotes in the Billwatch quotes archive, which adds: "When read in combination with Microsoft’s repeated claims that they are working for the good of society, not for that of their shareholders, this quote of Mr. Smith is refreshing."

Fortunately, ODF is making excellent progress and Andy Updegrove reassures that ODF is past the tipping point. Glyn Moody has his own take on this encouraging news as well. ⬆