<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 11 August 2010 17:41, James Carter <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jamescarter_uk@yahoo.co.uk" target="_blank">jamescarter_uk@yahoo.co.uk</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Regarding proprietrary document formats for archiving purposes or otherwise,<br>
I've spend some time in the past thinking about this as an open source argument<br>
and generally think it leads to nowhere or a pointless fight, but things could<br>
change if there are better alternatives from the open source world:<br>
<br>
<br>
1. It's easy to get a copy of M$ Office for practically free or very cheaply and<br>
the value of these proprietary "office" doucuments is actually very low although<br>
you'd be hard pushed to get them to delete them as they'd rather buy a new shiny<br>
storage array just in case. Finished reports and public documents are generally<br>
put on the web in read-only pdf format if they are able to (not that they know<br>
the difference, it's mainly because they're worried about edits having been<br>
stored in the document and it feels more like a tablet of stone). PDF is still<br>
a semi-proprietary format but essentially read-only and slightly easier to<br>
read/archive. There's also an increasing amount of web based readers and other<br>
libraries for office documents even if still proprietary.<br>
<br></blockquote><div> <br>This new UK Government has published their programme where under the section "Government Transparency" the last paragraph states :<br>"We will ensure that all data is published in an open and standardised format, so that it can be used easily and with minimal cost by third parties."<br>
<br><a href="http://programmeforgovernment.hmg.gov.uk/government-transparency/index.html">http://programmeforgovernment.hmg.gov.uk/government-transparency/index.html</a><br><br>Referring to a previous post on this list, this is not the case at the moment with some on-line public data..<br>
<br><a href="http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/1918.html">http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/1918.html</a><br><br> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
2. The Public sector loves spending money on Microsoft products as it<br>
gives them something relatively cheap compared with staff costs to spend their<br>
money on rather than wasting it on "IT" and gives all staff (including "IT")<br>
something to be 'productive' with. This is the main market for microsoft and<br>
most accountants rightly know it's better to buy something off the shelf made<br>
somewhere else even if mediocre than employ any more IT staff. Many an excel<br>
loving accountant has asked me if software is "microsoft compatible". One has<br>
to remember excel and it's precursors such as visicalc (free 27k download<br>
available here <a href="http://www.bricklin.com/history/vcexecutable.htm" target="_blank">http://www.bricklin.com/history/vcexecutable.htm</a> it runs on<br>
dosbox under linux no problem) have possibly put some of these accountants in<br>
these positions in the first place.<br>
<br>
</blockquote><div> This a report on a survey of 300 large organisations in the U.S., UK & Ireland regarding deployment of open source in 2010, I think the results would surprise some people. Whilst the discussion is about the Office varieties, I think there would be the least disruption and re-training in Open Office deployment in comparison to changing other open source applications/systems from proprietary systems.<br>
<br><a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/investment-in-open-source-software-set-to-rise-accenture-survey-finds-2010-08-05?reflink=MW_news_stmp">http://www.marketwatch.com/story/investment-in-open-source-software-set-to-rise-accenture-survey-finds-2010-08-05?reflink=MW_news_stmp</a><br>
<br> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">3. Because of paranoia about these formats, the newer office document formats<br>
from 2007 onwards use an easy to read and create xml storage either in Open<br>
document format or microsoft xml format (docx,xlsx), unzip them and have a<br>
look. Infact, it's often one of those politically correct excuses they actually<br>
upgrade to Office 2007/2010 in the first place!<br>
<br></blockquote><div> There is a lot of criticism that they really do not meet open document standards, irrespective whether approved or not.<br><br> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<font color="#888888"><br>
James<br>
</font><div><br>
<br>
----- Original Message ----<br>
From: Andrew Clayton <<a href="mailto:andrew@digital-domain.net" target="_blank">andrew@digital-domain.net</a>><br>
To: <a href="mailto:dundee@lists.lug.org.uk" target="_blank">dundee@lists.lug.org.uk</a><br>
Sent: Fri, 6 August, 2010 0:31:37<br>
Subject: Re: [dundee] Digital freedom debate<br>
<br>
</div><div><div></div><div>On Thu, 5 Aug 2010 23:12:19 +0100, gordon dunlop wrote:<br>
<br>
> On 5 August 2010 22:52, Andrew Clayton <<a href="mailto:andrew@digital-domain.net" target="_blank">andrew@digital-domain.net</a>><br>
> wrote:<br>
><br>
> > Also a few years ago at <a href="http://linux.conf.au" target="_blank">linux.conf.au</a> there was a talk about digital<br>
> > preservation at the National Archives of Australia.<br>
> ><br>
> > How many official government departmental documents are being made<br>
> > in .pub<br>
> or .docx format now. Nobody outside proprietary software can open<br>
> them, unless anyone can tell me how to do it in open source software<br>
> without using wine or the internet.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org_Writer" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org_Writer</a> OOo<br>
writer can open .docx files.<br>
<br>
Andrew<br>
<br>
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