Open document bill filed in Texas Senate
State Senator Hinojsa has filed SB 446, available here, which would amend the Texas Government Code by adding a requirement that state use open document formats. I think that this is an excellent move – a similar requirement was added at my request to the Open Government Online amendment for the City of Austin (which did not pass). On the whole, this would require that documents going forward after its enactment (if passed, 1 December 2007) to be in the open formats. Documents (or should I say .docs) before this date would have to be converted on the basis of guidelines developed by the state.
I wonder, however, if this timetable is a bit too ambitious. Some of the feedback that I got while working on the OGO Amendment from the City of Austin on this issue is that the City viewed moving that direction in the future as the long term goal, but that in the short term it was best to get the value out of the licensing agreements (such as for Word) that they had already paid for. Besides this financial point, rolling out (and training users on) a new system, even if it is the free (and open source) Open Office, is no small matter.
It will be interesting to see if this bill gets anywhere.
Senator Hinojosa’s home page. [Link].
