Groklaw has an interview with Peter Quinn, former CIO of Massachusetts. Quinn, as you probably remember (see FCW’s Mass. CIO resigns under fire), proposed that Massachusetts adopt an open document format and move away from Microsoft Office products. The ensuing drama, involving pressure from Microsoft, a personal investigation by The Boston Globe and the political trade-offs of the Massachusetts legislature was riveting -- in the same way a house fire or car crash is. Here’s a quote from the Q&A:
I think people are beginning to understand how desktops are being used in the Commonwealth which means that the vast majority of folks are content consumers. They require readers, a robust browser, email and maybe calendaring. Given that reality, it seems to be a blatant waste of the taxpayers' money to continue to buy MS Office when in fact most people use a very small piece of its functionality.
There are plenty of classic plot lines in this story – it would make a good book.
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