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Google on Open Document Formats
"A document standards decision may not matter to you today, but as someone who relies on constant access to editable documents, spreadsheets and presentations, it may matter immensely in the near future."
So says a post this week on the Official Google blog.
- A renewed wish for open document standards, by Zaheda Bhorat, Google Open Source Programs Manager, Official Google Blog, Feb 25, 2008.
There is a battle going on over open document formats that can affect the long term accessibility of government information. The battle is being waged by Microsoft, which wants its OOXML format to be adopted as an international standard instead of the truly open ODF format.
This week Google weighed in on the issue and summed up the complex issues quite succinctly, noting that:
Google believes OOXML would be an insufficient and unnecessary standard, designed purely around the needs of Microsoft Office.
...We join the ODF Alliance and many other experts in our belief that OOXML doesn't meet the criteria required for a globally-accepted standard.
Why? because OOXML attempts to make the functionality of Microsoft Office into the "standard." That would be bad because it elevates the importance of the software over the importance of the document. Of course, the question about whether or not the government should release information in the form of "editable documents" at all is another question, but since it does, the issue of open formats for editiable documents is an important one for government information.
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Fister on Privacy, Facebook, Google, Libraries
This is a very useful and thoughtful piece that starts with musings on Facebook and privacy issues and addresses much larger issues that affect libraries and library users and academic publishing. This is a must read.
- Face Value, By Barbara Fister, Inside Higher Ed (Feb. 18, 2008).
Sample:
Libraries have always taken privacy seriously - not because it's valuable in itself, but because it's a necessary condition for the freedom to read whatever you want without risk of penalty. When the PATRIOT Act was passed, librarians checked to make sure their databases erased the connection between a book and its borrower as soon as the book was returned. That erasure, however, makes it harder to offer the kind of personalization, such as recommendations based on previous book choices, that the public increasingly expects from online systems. After all, it's what they get from Amazon.
...[W]e've barely begun to examine the unintended consequences of the Faustian bargain we strike when we share content through privately-owned digital domains of the public sphere.
Joe Esposito pointed to this article in a posting to the liblicense-l mailing list and he says:
As I was reading this, I reflected on an ongoing conversation with a friend of mine, a former Congressional staffer, about the growing political need for Google to be declared a regulated public utiility, like the AT&T of yesteryear. Too much power in the hands of too few: it's morally wrong, and socially dangerous.
I would just add to this that, when we rely on the government to be the only official repository of all government information, we are putting too much power in the hands of too few. We are allowing the government to be the only entity that controls access to that information and the privacy or lack of privacy of all readers of that information. The solution to that is to build collections of digital government information is libraries. We have barely begun to understand the Faustian bargain we strike when we share content through a single government-controlled digital repository.
Fister is a librarian at Gustavus Adolphus College. Her blog is barbara fister's place.
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Army Says It Will Restore Public Access to Online Library
Army Says It Will Restore Public Access to Online Library. by Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News. Feb 21, 2008.
Continue readingThe U.S. Army said today that it would restore public access to the online Reimer Digital Library of Army publications, after having blocked the site on February 6.The U.S. Army said today that it would restore public access to the online Reimer Digital Library of Army publications, after having blocked the site on February 6.
Open Source isn’t just for Governments — it’s for campuses and libraries too!
We at FGI are big proponents of free and open source software and open document formats for government information because we believe that using such software and formats is the best way to ensure long-term viability, usability, re-usability, and preservability of government information. But two FGI volunteers, James R. Jacobs and Shinjoung Yeo, are actively and successfully promoting open source where they work -- at the Stanford Libraries.
- Open source on campus: The Stanford Open Source Lab by Ruth Suehle, Red Hat Magazine (2/12/08).
Over the last few months, open source has gained momentum at Stanford University in the form of the Stanford Open Source Lab. Inspired by groups like the Free Software Foundation, Oregon State University's Open Source Lab, Drupal, Openflows Community Technology Lab, and MIT's Open Course Ware, a few people at Stanford decided to band together and dedicate their time and energies to the development of free/open/libre learning and knowledge resources. The vision of the Open Source Lab is to be a nexus on campus for the discussion, advocacy, and technical support of community-based technologies and information systems.
As James notes in the article, their promotion of open source is philosophical as well as technological. As he puts it, "The ideals of the Library intersect closely with those of the open source community. That is, the free flow of and access to information, support by and of a community of interest, open standards, and the necessity for a growing and vibrant public domain to further the goals and interests of the community. Those ideals as well as the example of OSU's Open Source Lab, led me to the idea of supporting open source at Stanford."
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