A proposed bill before the California State Assembly would require the
state to adopt an open document format for all government
records.
The move would make California, with a population of more than 33
million, the largest government body to move to an open document
format.
Open document formats are gaining appeal with governments looking
for a cheap and effective method of standardising the way
electronic records are organised and accessed because they are
publicly available for all developers to use.
The bill stressed that a specific format was not being suggested,
only that "an open XML-based file format" is used.
Microsoft and
IBM are currently
locked in a battle over rival open XML-based formats. Big Blue is
backing the Open Document Format (ODF), while Microsoft is
proposing Open-XML, the format used by Office 2007.
The California bill states that an appropriate format will be
chosen by the state's Department of Technology Services on the basis of
compatibility with current systems.
It will also consider licensing status, i.e. whether the format is
royalty-free, and the extent to which a format is widely
used.
The bill is backed by San Francisco-based assemblyman Mark
Leno. If passed, it would set 1 January 2008 as the deadline
for all state agencies to begin generating and recording all
official electronic documents as open format files.
Massachusetts is the only US state to mandate a move to an open
document format. After a heated battle, the state ended up settling
on ODF, but allowing for the use of converters that allow Microsoft
Office to export to ODF.
State governments in Texas and Minnesota are currently considering
proposals to adopt open document systems.
Last summer, Belgium became the first country to attempt to move
its entire infrastructure to ODF, and plans to begin implementing
the new format sometime next year.