Hi all,<br>having common standards must be propagated.<br>Egovernance, is catching up in the developing world and India has its share too.<br>It is pertinent to keep the formats common like in OGC<br>where irrespective of the software used, file types are Open.<br>Cheers<br>Ravi Kumar<br><br><b><i>P Kishor <punk.kish@gmail.com></i></b> wrote:<blockquote class="replbq" style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"> On 5/15/08, Lester Caine <lester@lsces.co.uk> wrote:<br>> P Kishor wrote:<br>><br>> > On 5/14/08, Michael P. Gerlek <mpg@lizardtech.com> wrote:<br>> ><br>> > > I'm not looking to start a debate, but...<br>> > ><br>> ><br>> > you just did, and a good one at that.<br>> ><br>> ><br>> > > >> We call on all governments to:<br>> > > >><br>> > > >> 1. Procure only information technology that implements free
and<br>> > > open standards;<br>> > > >> 2. Deliver e-government services based exclusively on free and<br>> open<br>> > > standards;<br>> > > >> 3. Use only free and open digital standards in their own<br>> > > activities.<br>> > > >><br>> > ><br>> > > I'm certainly sympathetic to the desires this declaration seems to<br>> > > express, but this seems to go too far by using words like "only" and<br>> > > "exclusively".<br>> > ><br>> ><br>> > indeed. As much as an open source advocate, proponent and practitioner<br>> > I have, I see little positive effect that this declaration would have.<br>> > In all likelihood, it would further brand us as zealots.<br>> ><br>><br>> I tend to agree there. PROMOTE cooperation.<br>><br>><br>> > I thought "us" or "them" went out the window a few years ago when
we<br>> > realized that working together is better.<br>> ><br>> > "free and open digital standards" is all well and good but a<br>> > meaningless concept. Standard for what?<br>> ><br>><br>> But disagree there. Switching from M$ documents to 'real' open source<br>> documents and dropping licensed graphical data in favour of OSM and other<br>> free map data opens the door to 'Standardising' on something that we can all<br>> cooperate on.<br><br>It still is not clear what the "something" is... are you advocating a<br>standard for a license or a standard for a format? Are you talking<br>about standards in office-productivity applications (word-processing,<br>spreadsheet, presentation software) or in databases (should we boycott<br>everyone who uses Oracle and Ingres?) or remote sensing (does IDL go<br>out the window?) or medical imaging or audio or video or ... you get<br>the picture. Let me repeat my question.<br><br>Standard for
what?<br><br><br>> It 'somewhat annoys me' when I receive an M$ document from a<br>> council and am expected to edit and return it. They get back a PDF because I<br>> know that the format will be as I laid it out.<br>><br>> --<br>> Lester Caine - G8HFL<br>> -----------------------------<br>> Contact - http://lsces.co.uk/lsces/wiki/?page=contact<br>> L.S.Caine Electronic Services - http://lsces.co.uk<br>> EnquirySolve - http://enquirysolve.com/<br>> Model Engineers Digital Workshop - http://medw.co.uk//<br>> Firebird - http://www.firebirdsql.org/index.php<br>><br>> _______________________________________________<br>> Discuss mailing list<br>> Discuss@lists.osgeo.org<br>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss<br>><br><br><br>-- <br>Puneet Kishor http://punkish.eidesis.org/<br>Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/<br>Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo)
http://www.osgeo.org/<br>_______________________________________________<br>Discuss mailing list<br>Discuss@lists.osgeo.org<br>http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss<br></mpg@lizardtech.com></lester@lsces.co.uk></blockquote><br><p>