[odf-discuss] Gnome Foundation and ECMA

[Ian Lynch]

On Sat, 2007-11-03 at 17:14 -0400, Jody Goldberg wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 03, 2007 at 12:26:07PM +0000, Ian Lynch wrote:
> > On Fri, 2007-11-02 at 23:32 -0400, Jody Goldberg wrote:
> > 
> > If there is an agreed and published ISO standard I doubt that will be
> > possible.
> 
> MS is strong in the dark side, and ODF is far from rigorous.  They
> can easily write content right now that conforms to the spec that OO.o
> could not read.  Publishing how on an open list seems like a bad
> idea.

No need, its not really important at this point in time.

> > > My biases are self evident.  I'm a developer,
> > 
> > And that resolves you from all responsibility for compromising strategy?
> > The romantic view of the loan hacker changing the world through the
> > anarchy of technical excellence has its place but there are increasingly
> > many exceptions. RMS has had more effect on the take up of free software
> > from his political activities than from his coding.
> 
> We'll have to agree on strategy before I'll admit to compromising
> it.

Straightforward. Establish a single ISO standard that is clearly not
explicitly linked to one monopoly closed source product backed by a
company known to break the law in order to further its ends. Discredit
any attempts to confuse the issue with more than one ISO standard. Lobby
governments to adopt the ISO standard and improve it. Use competition
legislation to target any large organisations that produces extensions
to the standard that are not openly documented or could be judged to be
anti-competitive in terms of blocking interoperability with competitors'
products.

> > As a hacker you are not going to like this reply but the research
> > evidence seems to be on my side. The technology just has to be good
> > enough
> 
> In the short term certainly. 

That is an aspect of the theory of disruptive innovation. Good enough
and then incrementally improved.

>  There are lots of other factors can
> can impact adoption decisions beyond the purely technical.  However,
> increased utility and access to source code are powerful attractors.

Access to source code is not the same as the quality of the code. I
agree there are many factors. The main issue that muddies thing for
software is piracy. Ironically, the more MS pursue national piracy the
more likely they tip that country into a switch. This is more about free
as in free beer for these governments than any concern about the
principles of freedom and in fact in the initial stages they will use
free software as a simple bargaining chip to get the price down so the
politicians can go to the electorate and say look at the great deal we
got for you. Its also why in the USA/UK people say things like license
costs are only a small percentage of TCO. In Africa, its not the case
because labour cost are much lower so licensing costs are relatively
much greater. Hence the interest in FLOSS in developing countries
especially if they are no longer able to turn a blind eye to piracy.

> Over time, they bias the market in our favour.   All we have to do
> is win 51% of the time, and have some patience.

I agree the long term outcome is inevitable whatever happens with ISO,
its just going to happen quicker if there is a single standard so
governments can no longer put off grasping the nettle. It gives the
political activists greater leverage and a sharper focus with which to
target the national governments.

> > > This is a technological problem, that's why we're winning now.
> > 
> > Sigh. I guess in the end you will believe what you want to believe.
> 
> The truth of that statement becomes clearer the older I get.
> It's depressing.  At the end of the day the most optimistic outcome
> is that we'll convince each other that our mutual intentions are
> good, and that we are stubbornly blind to reality.
> 
> My wife could easily give you some ammunition against me in that
> respect.

Probably mine too :-) One advantage that large corporations have is that
they can devise agreed strategies and implement them. Its a bit like the
ancient Britons fighting against the organised Roman legions. But Rome
didn't last forever and neither will MS dominance, the key issue is how
quickly not if. 

Ian
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