Thanks Eunice, Coming from the ICT Board, i believe it would be nice to share your comments with the list. On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 3:59 PM, Eunice Mueni Kariuki < eunicekariuki@ict.go.ke> wrote:

This is excellent interms of educating the public on matters of ICT especially those that affect thier daily ICT lives directly or indirectly.

I am sure many will agree with you and is indeed inline with the mandate of the ICT Board.

However, in the last topic (Why Kenya should say No) - point no. 3 - I am not convinced that microsoft has what it takes to do what you say they did. I am also not convinced that those responsible for forming that committee would fall for this implied trick. Indeed it would be sad and they should not be in office.

I will refer you to the committee to investigate its composition. KEBS should give you a list of the membership. It was an issue then and it is till now.

On point no. 4, it would have been helpful if you provided details of actual propriatory rights.

There is lots of information on this; A quick reference is http://www.noooxml.org/patents. Otherwise I am confused because your email implies that Microsoft also

compromised the ISO body to approve OOXML as a parallel standard!

I just stated things as they are. Its many times that Microsoft has been found to go about things in a skewed manner. A case in point is for example the signing of MOUs with government ministries in pursuit of their business interests. This already happened in Kenya with th Ministry of Education and i hope the ICT board will objectively look at this matter. Muthoni If this were the case then that body does not deserve that office

Just Keeping an open mind..

Eunice On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 1:23 PM, Dorcas Muthoni <dmuthoni@gmail.com> wrote:

...

*What is an Office Document Standard*

A standard file format that would allow office documents such as spreadsheets and word processing files to be opened by applications from different vendors.

*Why Open Standards

*Creating an open office file format suggests that documents created in an application that supports that file format could be opened in other applications that support it as well. E.g. A document written using OpenOffice for example, could be opened in Ms Office without affecting the layout or formatting.

With an open standard;

- You can choose any operating system or application and still be able to read and edit all your old documents e.g. whether it is Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Unix. - You can collaborate with others regardless of which software they are using e.g. whether it is LotusNotes, OpenOffice, Ms Office, StarOffice, GoogleApps . - You can use any software of your choice to exchange documents within your organization, with your clients, partners, government and everyone else.

The goal of an open standard is to free corporate data from proprietary file formats so they can be accessed for years to come no matter what office software a company or government is using. Companies and governments are currently saving data in proprietary file formats, such as those written in Microsoft's Office software (.doc, .xls, .ppt, and lately .docx, .xlsx, .pptx), and locking themselves into using that software indefinitely.

A relative example is, we all develop our websites and expect to successfully access them using various browser software (Mozilla Firefox, Netscape, Safari, Internet Explorer etc). We successfully manage to do this because of HTML, XML and Browser open standardization.

The same should happen for office documents and hence definition of open document standards.

*What is ODF*

ODF(OpenDocument Format) an ISO standard created with the aim to provide an open XML-based document file format for office applications to be used for documents containing text, spreadsheets, charts, and graphical elements. ODF is defined via an open and transparent process at OASIS ( The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) and has been approved unanimously by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) as an international standard in May 2006. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel ODF reuses established standards like HTML, SVG, XSL, SMIL, XLink, XForms, MathML, and Dublin Core.

ODF leaves space for all present and future vendors do implement it and makes sure that end users won't suffer from any sort of vendor lock-in. In contrast to earlier used binary formats which were cryptic and difficult to process, ODF's use of XML makes accessing the document content simple.

ODF guarantees long-term viability. The OASIS ODF TC, the OASIS ODF Adoption TC, and the ODF Alliance include members from Adobe, BBC, EDS, EMC, GNOME, Google, IBM, Intel, KDE, Novell, Oracle, Red Hat, Software AG and Sun Microsystems. Since June 2006 the ODF Alliance has already more than 300 members.

*What is OOXML*

A format proposed by Microsoft that comes closest to ODF in function, but it fails the test for an Open Standard in various ways, including an unclear legal status as well as inclusion of and reference to proprietary technologies. It has all signs of a vendor-specific format that only Microsoft will be able to implement completely.

Microsoft, which dominates the office software market with its Office suite, is a member of OASIS and was fully aware of the technical committee that came up with ODF. However, they opted to make Ms Office 2007 heavily reliant on XML and also initiated a parallel technical committee to develop a standard file format the MS OOXML.

Ms Office 2007 *does not* support ODF. What Microsoft has done is to push MS OOXML through a fast track process to have the standard certified by ISO. The standard is being reviewed by technical committees (TC) formed through national standards bodies. The TCs pass a vote through a ballot process. The ballot resolutions are then forwarded to ISO, if the outcome is greater support for MS OOXML, then the standard will be passed.

*Why should we reject a proprietary standard like OOXML

*

1. We live in a digital age where paper documents increasingly get replaced by electronic records. We may even see the day we no longer use paper and pen to keep records. In this situation long-term data becomes critical. This is especially the case for legal contracts and government documents which stay valid and relevant over decades, or even centuries. Just like there were many vendors supplying paper and pens through out the history, and not a single one, so do these formats and applications which are used to make them need to be vendor independent. That is the only guanrantee of long-term access to data, even if companies disappear, change their strategies or dramatically raise their prices. 2. The Kenyan technical committee (hosted by KEBS) reviewing the MS OOXML standard was inappropriately constituted and is highly imbalanced. Microsoft recommended business partners to this committee and the first vote returned a yes resolution because of this imbalance. On March 19th 2008, the committee passed an Abstain resolution which Microsoft is now strongly appealing against. 3. Further, the MS OOXML standard is defined in 6,000+ pages and with the fast track process, it is barely possible to review the standard comprehensively. This standard must be reviewed via the regular standard process. 4. MS OOXML is a proposed parallel standard without a justification. 5. *OOXML has patent issues*

For all those with questions, feel free to ask.

-- Muthoni

My Blog: http://rugongo.blogspot.com/ -------------------------------------------- Mahatma Gandhi once said:-

First they ignore you, Then they laugh at you, Then they fight you, AND THEN YOU WIN!!! _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet

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Eunice Mueni Kariuki Kenya ICT Board Nairobi, Kenya

alternative address. eunice.kariuki@hotmail.go.ke

-- Muthoni My Blog: http://rugongo.blogspot.com/ -------------------------------------------- Mahatma Gandhi once said:- First they ignore you, Then they laugh at you, Then they fight you, AND THEN YOU WIN!!!