Nice spin

LAST NIGHT we saw that Alex Brown, the BRM convenor for OOXML, had joined the anti-ODF cat fight. He has also just become a Wikipedia editor for the article on "OpenDocument". Any conflict of interests where his relationship with Microsoft comes into play? This morning we found some more mischief in Wikipedia. This carried in in the afternoon (a lot more activity than usual). Here is a removal of Microsoft's self-referencing smears against ODF and some edits from the vehemently pro-Microsoft "Ghettoblaster". Joining him again is Rick Jelliffe, to whom Microsoft previously offered money for Wikipedia edits.

“Most people would not suspect a thing because they don't understand who is involved.”It's truly fascinating to see how many people or entities serve Microsoft from the outside. Most people would not suspect a thing because they don't understand who is involved. History matters. Take Black Duck Software for example. Few people know that the genesis of this company is a Microsoft employee. Black Duck Software is currently being used to usher Microsoft into open source software, despite and against the wide opposition to it^*. We wrote about this twice before [1, 2] and we also worry somewhat about SourceForge, which has just acquired some former Microsoft employees.

Microsoft's activity aside, as was pointed out this morning, Ecuador embraces ODF and IBM is happy about it.

What prompted me to realize this just today? I receive the ODF Alliance Newsletter regularly in my inbox. Today, I noticed the following:

(note that while the URL is in Spanish, the translation can be seen here thanks to Google) ECUADOR CHARTS PATH TO ODF ADOPTION

A recent audit of government documents found there is room for improvement in making government documents accessible. The ANAO is suggesting that the government uses RTF or HTML instead of PDF formats to make its documents more accessible online, but Linux users say better still would be to opt for Open Document Format (ODF).

I will be happy to work on all this with my colleagues at the OASIS, and also with you, members of the broader Internet community: Citizens, small and large businesses, government, developers, and others. If you are a voting member of the OASIS consortium, don’t forget to cast your ballot this month, it is important.