[PLUG] Open Document Standards

[D. Cooper Stevenson]

Gentlemen:

As are likely aware, the State of Massachusetts is moving toward an Open
Document standard for the State's computerized documents.
Massachusetts's IT director, Peter Quin, cited long term data retention
and a move away from single vendor dependence as primary reasons for the
approved initiative.

Oregon agencies and businesses are facing the same issues retrieving
their data in proprietary formats that Massachusetts is facing;
difficulty retrieving documents written with older, proprietary
software. The problem is aggregated as the proprietary software that
originally wrote the document uses a non-disclosed format written in
binary. 

The Open Document format, approved by the State of Massachusettes and
international standards consortiums, relieves the problem by providing
an open and clearly documented standard. In effect, ODF documents are
written using a structure that is clearly documented and free of
copyright restrictions. A key benefit is that ODF documents may still be
retrieved even if the vendor of the document software is unwilling or
unable to provide a system of retrieving the information in a way that
is compatible with new systems.

It is critical that Oregon move to an open documentation standard.
During my 15 years in the Information Technology industry in both
technical and managerial capacities, I have seen time and time again the
consequences of implementing IT models using undocumented, proprietary
systems.

I look forward to discussing the matter with each of you further. Please
contact me for a meeting at your convenience You may find my
qualifications attached to this message.



Respectfully Yours,


Cooper Stevenson
President
GenCom, LLC
Ph: 541.908.1404
Em: cstevens at gencom.us
Www: http://www.gencom.us