[odf-discuss] Response to Andy Updegrove's article about the Foundation

[Kevin Cave]

marbux wrote:
<snip>

> I hope this gives you a sufficient overview but don't hesitate to ask 
> other questions. (The About page will hopefully be more compressed.) The 
> Council is going to be every bit as open as I can make it given the 
> limitations of software, time, and my abilities.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Paul Merrell ("Marbux")

Paul,

Thank you for your comprehensive and informative answer, I enjoyed
reading it.

I might make one suggestion to yourself, and to anyone who chooses to
join the Council, which should be followed relentlessly, and it is this;

That if you wish an interoperability standard to be set, against or with
any other standard, that anyone in the council do not disparage the
other set standards in the process, no matter how much flak you receive
from supporters of the other standard supporters.

It is only through following that advice that you can remain on the high
ground, and can be seen as honorable, trustworthy, and consistent. I
feel personally that recent events - such as for example, the
OpenDocument Foundation's /appearance/ of turning on the OpenDocument
Format - handed FUD ammunition to other interests on a plate - something
I wrote about at the time.

I have deliberately stayed out of the MSOOXML/ODF fighting over the last
couple of months for the very reason that 1) other sites and people were
fighting, and 2) although I have a bias towards Free and Open Source
software, and Open standards, I wanted to stay out of the fray and come
to my own conclusions (while of course correcting what I perceived to be
blatant FUD articles on the web along the way).

If this new Council can avoid slinging mud at everyone else, and instead
find its way to direct its energy towards forming its own standard(s)
for interoperability, even if mud is being flung at it, then I'm sure
perseverance will win out.

I also hope that any format your council can come up with will be truly
Open, with no patent or proprietary issues involved too. That would be
great.

My tuppence worth.

Best regards

Kevin.
-- 
Kevin Cave.
http://hackfud.net