Blackmoor Vituperative

Massachusetts has appointed a new CIO and made it clear that his job will be to forge ahead with implementing the controversial OpenDocument format, set to go into effect in January 2007.

The new CIO, Louis Gutierrez, will step into the shoes vacated by Peter Quinn, who stepped down Jan. 9.

Quinn, the man who championed the adoption of ODF in Massachusetts, had been buffeted by the concomitant controversy and attacks that turned personal. In particular, the Boston Globe ran an article about Quinn’s purportedly unauthorized travel to conferences.

A subsequent review by the governor’s budget chief fully exonerated Quinn from any wrongdoing, but the damage was already done.

A request made to the Globe’s ombudsman two months ago to investigate the article’s origin has not yet been answered, according to Andrew Updegrove, a partner at the Boston law firm Gesmer Updegrove LLP and the editor of ConsortiumInfo.org.

The current policy of the Commonwealth’s IT Division mandates that documents created by state executive branch agencies must be saved in the OpenDocument format by January of next year, with the goal being to implement a standard developed in a standards body that would free the state from the control of one company over its proprietary code.

Massachusetts first moved to standardize on ODF on Sept. 1, when the proposal was first approved.

(from eWeek, Massachusetts Appoints ODF-Friendly CIO)

I’m glad that the lobbying from the forces of evil hasn’t managed to sway Massachusetts’ IT policy makers.

Virginia, wake up! You’re supposed to be the tech-friendly state! Where’s your initiative to move to OpenDocument? Get your act in gear, Virginia!