Policy deals blow to Microsoft
State adopting a new format for documents
The state of Massachusetts will require that by 2007 all documents produced by the state's executive branch must be stored in a new universal format. The policy change, which will require modifications to software running on thousands of the state's computers, is also a challenge to the power of Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software company.
Microsoft Office, one of the company's most profitable products, is the standard software used in government offices. But Office uses its own specialized format for storing financial spreadsheets and text documents. This format often cannot be understood or modified by other computer programs. In addition, documents created today may not be readable by computers in 20 years, because Microsoft may change its document formats.
Under the new policy from Massachusetts chief information officer Peter Quinn, all state documents must be stored in OpenDocument, a universal format created by an international consortium of companies. Any company can add OpenDocument compatibility to its software without having to pay a licensing fee for the technology.
Quinn said that the state could implement the new standard without abandoning Microsoft Office. ''We are not asking anybody to take anything off their desktop," he said. Instead, an estimated 50,000 computers would be modified with software that would let Office users store their files in the OpenDocument format, instead of Microsoft's.
The new standard was published on a state government website on Wednesday night. Its release comes nearly a week after Quinn met with representatives of Microsoft and other computer software companies concerned about the policy. A number of major companies, including IBM Corp., backed the new document standard. But in a document submitted to Quinn, Microsoft officials called the proposed policy ''costly and unnecessary."
Melanie Wyne, executive director of the Initiative for Software Choice, a coalition of computer hardware and software companies, also disapproved of Quinn's action. Wyne said that the new policy would force the state to switch from commercial software like Microsoft Office, to free ''open source" alternatives like StarOffice, a program that automatically saves all files in the OpenDocument standard. Wyne said that such a policy is unfair to commercial software developers, who should have an equal opportunity to win state government contracts.
A Microsoft spokesperson said that the company believed that the state's decision was not final.
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com. 