In another fine example of why tax money is wasted and government generally does not work, the Massachusetts CIO Peter Quinn has resigned amid the controversy over a planned move to the OpenDocument format for state documents. Mr. Quinn’s primary sin appears to have been the audacity to choose an open document format, that Microsoft has adamantly refused to support, so far. OpenDocument would ultimately save the state a great deal of money and ensure that public documents would always to accessible to the public rather than locked away in a single vendor’s proprietary format. Sounds like a pretty smart idea to me.
There is no technical reason that Microsoft could not support OpenDocument. But rather than play nice, it appears that the political dogs were sicked on Mr. Quinn instead. So once again, government makes it clear that smart, thinking people will be quickly forced out of having anything to do with promoting the public good. With Quinn out of the picture, I won’t be surprised if OpenDocument in Massachusetts quickly disappears from the scene too. Money well spent by Microsoft lobbyists.