http://www.geek-pac.org/blog/2007/04/video-snippets-of-ab-1668-hearing/ Fight for Your Information Rights Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:32:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://www.geek-pac.org/blog/2007/04/video-snippets-of-ab-1668-hearing/comment-page-1/#comment-52 2008: The Year of Open Document Formats? « Opportunity Knocks Mon, 14 Jan 2008 06:35:19 +0000 http://www.bytesfree.org/bfblog/index.php/2007/04/20/video-snippets-of-ab-1668-hearing/#comment-52 [...] The challenge is to avoid being portrayed as some kind of nutzo extremists. Just as they did with the AB1668 hearings, leading vendors will try to say that they represent "the American way" and that openness advocates are anti-social throwbacks to the 1960s and 1970s, burning draft cards and bras, while munching on granola and wearing Birkenstocks.Our neighbors and coworkers need to see that we are normal people, just like them, who wish to smooth out some of the speed bumps that slow down data interchange and hinder long-term data preservation. They need to see that we are seeking our children’s (and their children’s) best interests when we insist that their schools stop teaching how to use a specific brand and version of software, instead teaching the general principles that apply to all brands, and offer to give the schools and their students free CDs of OpenOffice or Symphony. They need to see that we are helping poor and rich alike when we insist that our local governments standardize on ODF and other open standard file formats. [...] [...] The challenge is to avoid being portrayed as some kind of nutzo extremists. Just as they did with the AB1668 hearings, leading vendors will try to say that they represent "the American way" and that openness advocates are anti-social throwbacks to the 1960s and 1970s, burning draft cards and bras, while munching on granola and wearing Birkenstocks.Our neighbors and coworkers need to see that we are normal people, just like them, who wish to smooth out some of the speed bumps that slow down data interchange and hinder long-term data preservation. They need to see that we are seeking our children’s (and their children’s) best interests when we insist that their schools stop teaching how to use a specific brand and version of software, instead teaching the general principles that apply to all brands, and offer to give the schools and their students free CDs of OpenOffice or Symphony. They need to see that we are helping poor and rich alike when we insist that our local governments standardize on ODF and other open standard file formats. [...]

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