The Standards Blog

"Public Relations" is one of those funny phrases that has very little to do with what it really means.  At sixty thousand feet, it's about influencing opinion, which (at that altitude) doesn't sound all that bad.  But when it gets down into the bushes, it starts to become a bit less innocuous, and more unsavory.  For example, when you watch a political ad and listen to a smarmy voice malign another politician, you know exactly what's going on, and it's not pretty.  Still, at least you have your radar spinning, and can take the statements for what they're worth, which is not expected to be much.

But how about messages that are delivered in sheep's clothing, in other contexts, where you don't expect to be listening to a paid political announcement, and therefore won't necessarily recognize what you're listening to for what it is?

Here's where the fun comes in (I use the word "fun" in the darkest and most cynical fashion), because in order for messaging to be effective, it must be consistent.  And if it is consistent, it can be spotted.  But once you learn how to spot it, you enter into a disquieting science fiction world where ostensibly innocent, normal people are suddenly revealed to be  "them" - but only you can see them.

This blog entry is the first of what I fear will be a long series of posts where I will cut and paste outtakes from various sources, putting the key words from the script in bold, and paraphrasing the rest to thwart Googling.  Over time, you can assemble the script yourself, and start spotting "them" yourself when you see them.

It's not my goal at this blog to nominate myself as the official FUD Ombudsman for the contest between the ODF standard and Microsoft's  Open XML (especially since the connotations of the name "Ombudsman" in this saga ain't what they used to be).  But a press release issued late Monday falls so neatly into the pattern that I wrote about two days ago that I'm not feeling a lot of choice on the matter this morning.  Sadly, the text of that release also points out an unfortunate by-product of "objective journalism"  -  the ability to have outrageous statements broadly disseminated by journalists who feel bound to provide both sides of an issue, but don't have the time to research and report whether the statements are true or false.   

The press release in question was issued by the Initiative for Software Choice (ISC), an affiliate of CompTIA, and is titled "Coalition Says Massachusetts' Search for ODF Plug-in Evidences Flaw in Mandate Policy."  The news-based message of the release, as I read it, is that the issuance by the Massachusetts Information Technology Division (ITD) of a request for information illustrates that free market dynamics are preferable to imposed technical requirements.  The press release concludes by saying:  "We applaud these and subsequent, market-based developments."   

David Gardner wrote a piece at InformationWeek.com based on the same press release, and titled it "Trade Group Blasts Massachusetts Call for Office Plug-in."  Perhaps we shouldn't be too hard on David for getting the formal message wrong, because in fact he got the underlying message regarding the ITD's policy dead on.

For a sequel to this blog entry, see: A Tale of Two Press Releases: Big Lies and Objective Journalism

This blog entry is a rarity for me: an exegesis on the deliberate disinformation spread by a single vendor.  I generally avoid a piece like this for two reasons: first, every vendor has its own PR agenda, with the differences being a matter of degree between the egregious and the merely disingenuous.  More importantly, there is a risk when focusing on a single vendor of decreasing one's reputation for objectivity, despite the fact that one may certainly focus on the statements of a single source and fairly find them to be both inaccurate and cynical. 

What persuaded me to take up the cudgels in this case was a quote I read earlier this week in eWeek, and then spotted again  Bob Sutor's blog today:

"You can achieve interoperability in a number of ways," said [Microsoft's] Robertson. Among them: joint collaboration agreements, technology licensing and interoperability pacts.

The reason this statement caught my eye was that Scott Edwards (also of Microsoft) had used virtually the exact same words at a NIST workshop that I spoke at a month or so ago, offering such methods as valid alternatives to "open standards."  My reaction then, as now, is that such means can in no way represent equivalent alternatives to open standards, although they might offer an avenue to a single vendor, or to a cadre of vendors, to control a marketplace to their own advantage.  When you hear something once, it can be off-hand remark, but when you hear it twice, it's clear that it's a corporate talking point.  And when it comes from the General Manager for Standards of a dominant vendor, it becomes worrisome.

Still and all, and to be fair, Roberson's statement is accurate in a technical sense, although when used in certain contexts (such as the NIST workshop) it can be misleading to an audience that isn't knowledgeable about standards. 

Earlier this week, the Massachusetts Information Technology Division (ITD) issued a Request for Information (RFI) titled "OpenDocument Format Plug-in for Microsoft Office Suite."   Almost immediately, Pamela Jones posted word at Groklaw  from Gary Edwards that the OpenDocument Foundation had completed just such a plug-in, and would be responding in detail to the ITD shortly.  There will surely be other responses as well, as I have received email over the past several month from other groups embarked on the same project, some as far afield as Australia.

The RFI itself has some interesting aspects as well.  Rather than a formal  Request for Proposals, the RFI is instead a message to the greater IT community asking for assistance, not only from those that may be creating tools, but from those that may simply be aware of something interesting that is going on.  Specifically, what the ITD is looking for are tools that can assist it in its conversion to software that supports the ODF-compliant office software.  The page at the ITD procurement Website where you can view the RFI in ODF, PDF or (yes) Word format is here. 

As a result, if you are involved in a relevant project, or know of one, I would encourage you to check out the RFI and supply any information that you may have that could be useful.  Whether or not you have anything to offer, though, the RFI makes for interesting reading, and I'll now point out a few reasons why.

One of the great goals of standards development is to encourage the proliferation of multiple products that are comparable and interoperable at the level of standardization, but which each compete with value-added features, level of service and otherwise.  This arises from a set of mutual expectations among vendors and end-users that each will benefit from the wide uptake of the standard, especially where interoperability is a necessity, or lock-in a danger. 

To the vendor, the anticipated benefit is the rapid development of a larger and more long-term market than would result from multiple proprietary offerings, while the value to the end-user is greater choice, lower prices, more useful features, and avoidance of lock-in.  But none of this will occur to the benefit of any stakeholder unless multiple vendors decide to implement the standard in question.  As a result, the OpenDocument Format (ODF) will only be as valuable to end-users in fact as it is perceived to be potentially valuable to developers. 

Happily, multiple developers, both proprietary vendors as well as open source communities, have decided that there is great value to be gained from supporting the ODF standard, promising just such an environment of rich features, service and protection from lock-in.  Some have achieved a great deal of press, most notably Sun's StarOffice 8.0, the open-source OpenOffice 2.0 suite, developed by OpenOffice.org (which is supported by Sun) and IBM's Workplace Managed Client.   

But there are also versions of ODF that are not fueled by vendor funding, and the most fully developed of those offerings is KOffice, an open-source office suite developed by the KDE (K Development Environment) project, which has been hard at work developing a free, open desktop environment and development platform since 1996 that runs on many UNIX variants, including Linux.  A few weeks ago, KDE announced the release of KOffice 1.5, which achieves a high degree of support for ODF.

In this extensive interview, I explore with Inge Wallin, the KOffice Promotions Lead, how KOffice is different from the other major office productivity releases that support ODF, which users may find it most appropriate to their needs, in what directions future development will proceed, and much more.  In the future, I hope to provide similar interviews with representatives of the other major offerings, in order to illustrate the way in which the ODF standards-based office productivity environment is evolving in real time. 

The six month voting window for ISO/IEC adoption of the OASIS OpenDocument Format (ODF) standard closed on May 1, and at midnight (Geneva time) last night it was announced internally that ODF had been approved by the ISO members eligible and interested in casting a vote.  The vote passed with broad participation and no negative votes (there were a few abstentions), and ODF is now ISO/IEC 26300.  While there are still some procedural steps internal to ISO/IEC that are required before the official text of the standard will be finalized and issued, these steps (described below) are formalities rather than gating factors.

With adoption of ODF by ISO/IEC now assured, software that implements the standard will now become more attractive to those European and other government purchasers for whom global adoption by ISO/IEC is either desirable, or required.  Given the ongoing unhappiness in Europe with Microsoft over what the EU regards as unacceptable bundling and other practices, this may be particularly significant, especially when taken with the desire of many European and other purchasers to use open source products whenever possible.  Offerings such as OpenOffice and KOffice therefore should receive a boost in appeal and usage, as well as for-sale versions, such as Sun's StarOffice and IBM's Internet-based offering.

Microsoft's Open XML specification, also headed for consideration by ISO/IEC, is still in process within Ecma.  Upon completion, it would be submitted to the same voting process. 

Like many that have followed the OpenDocument Format (ODF) story in Massachusetts, I've wondered what former State CIO Peter Quinn would eventually decide to do after announcing his resignation late last year.  Since then, he's engaged in a whirlwind public speaking tour that has taken him throughout Europe and as far away as Australia.  While doing so, he's told the story of what befell him in Massachusetts, and promoted open standards and open source software.

While catching up on my Google Alerts just now, I finally stumbled on the answer in the closing paragraphs of a long article at InformationWeek.com.  That article was called Lightning Rod no Longer, and focused on corporate ethics, using Peter as an example of someone who didn't take favors from vendors, but got pilloried anyway.  In it, Peter describes in detail how increasing attention (welcome and otherwise) focused on Massachusetts, and how he became in increasing demand as a speaker on the importance of open standards and open source software in government.  As a result, his speaking invitations became more numerous, eventually providing a spurious opening for his integrity to be questioned. 

According to this article, Peter is returning to the private sector, not surprisingly having had enough of government service, at least for now.

As you may recall, a new organization called the ODF Alliance was formed on March 3 of this year to support the uptake of the OpenDocument Format (ODF) by governments.  It's formation was in large part intended to make the adoption of ODF less difficult for future states (and less dangerous for state CIOs) than it had been for Massachusetts last year. Yesterday, the ODF Alliance  issued a press release announcing that it has more than tripled its membership to 138, and has also appointed a Managing Director.

As I reported one month ago today when I decided to look in on the Alliance a few weeks after its launch, this highly targeted initiative got off to a very rapid start.  It appears that the pace of recruitment has slowed (membership leaped from 38 to 113 in the first two and a half weeks, while an additional 25 members have joined in the past month), but I expect that the rate of recruitment may pick up again with the addtion of the new Managing Director, Marino Marcich.