Massachusetts mulls move to open-source documents

State offices in Massachusetts could soon be rid of proprietary digital documents, if a recent proposal to move to open-source document formats is approved.

The proposal, drafted by the Information Technology Division of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, would have all documents in offices run by the state moved off of Microsoft Office, IBM Lotus Notes, WordPerfect and other proprietary formats by 2007. The proposals calls for documents to be moved to the OpenDocument file format standard, an open-source, XML-based file format.

State officials say part of the idea is to preserve state documents in a format that can be read in the future, even if the proprietary applications that created the documents no longer exist, or are not available. Another goal is to make state documents more available to a wider range of users.

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State offices in Massachusetts could soon be rid of proprietary digital documents, if a recent proposal to move to open-source document formats is approved.

The proposal, drafted by the Information Technology Division of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, would have all documents in offices run by the state moved off of Microsoft Office, IBM Lotus Notes, WordPerfect and other proprietary formats by 2007. The proposals calls for documents to be moved to the OpenDocument file format standard, an open-source, XML-based file format.

State officials say part of the idea is to preserve state documents in a format that can be read in the future, even if the proprietary applications that created the documents no longer exist, or are not available. Another goal is to make state documents more available to a wider range of users.

“We’re concerned about preserving history,” said Peter Quinn, CIO for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in a conference call.

“Microsoft remade the desktop world,” Quinn said, but “formats are not an issue that gives [Microsoft] any kind of economic advantage.”

He says the Commonwealth has not committed to any kind of office software, whether the open-source OpenOffice platform, Microsoft Office, or other applications.

The move would not necessarily mean scrubbing Microsoft Office software from every PC in state offices, Quinn says. State officials and Microsoft have been in talks on ways that Office products could still be used, by allowing documents to be saved in non-proprietary formats that are acceptable to the state’s proposed open-document standard.

“We have tens of thousands of desktops in the Commonwealth, and most run Microsoft Office. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we didn’t have to deal with that kind of transition anytime soon?” Quinn said. “At the end of the day, we hope everyone gets to open formats.”