Call for Asia to Adopt ODF 35
Malek Indiam points out an article on ZDNet Asia about a push for Asian governments to wean themselves from proprietary file formats. From the article: "An official from the United Nations has called for countries in the Asia-Pacific region to embrace the OpenDocument format. Sunil Abraham, manager of the International Open Source Network (IOSN) at the U.N., told ZDNet Asia that most governments in the region have already stated their support for open standards, through their respective government interoperability frameworks. He hopes that governments in the region will now extend that support and "seriously consider" the OpenDocument Format (ODF)."
In other news... (Score:3, Funny)
Who cares? We do. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Who cares? We do. (Score:3, Insightful)
In addition, if the rest of the world standardizes on Free Software and open formats -- a possibility that seems less far-fetched every day -- the peer pressure might be enough to keep the US from going off the DRM and Treacherous Computing deep end. I can only hope...
Re:Who cares? We do. (Score:2)
It only seems less far-fetched to
Re:Who cares? We do. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Who cares? We do. (Score:2)
I completely agree, regarding the US. And, of course, it wouldn't hurt everywhere else too.
However, it does seem as though there's a lot more momentum in other countries, such that Free Software has a decent chance of taking hold even without advertising help.
Re:Who cares? We do. (Score:1)
Re:Who cares? We do. (Score:2)
For example, when was the last time you filled a perscription in grains rather
than milligrams (1 grain is about 62 milligrams)?
When was the last time you bought a half gallon of cola (as opposed to a 2-liter)?
Just food for thought.
Re:Who cares? We do. (Score:2)
it also goes the other way. here in europe we have some of things in imperial system when i start to think about it.
let's see...
car wheel diameter, equipment rack width (and more or less heigth), display size (though usually also noted in cm for everything else besides computer screens), computer peripherals width (hdd/floppy/optical drives etc)...
there probably are others i have forgotten.
Re:Who cares? We do. (Score:2)
To quote C&C: Generals, "It's a good move for China!"
Re:Who cares? We do. (Score:2)
Better use of UN time (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Better use of UN time (Score:1)
Re:Better use of UN time (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Better use of UN time (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Better use of UN time (Score:1)
Your assuming much more could be done in they devoted their full attention to the problem.
A lot of time is spent trying to solve a problem and seeing what happens.
Re:Better use of UN time (Score:2)
Re:Better use of UN time (Score:1)
Well maybe Canada, Europe, and the U.S. could support the UN open source geeks in resolving the crisis by sending Theo, Linus, and RMS! After all, they are so even-tempered and compromising, that they should be able to bring the sides together into mutual understanding and caring :)
Geneva convention, bub (Score:2)
Plus, hey, think of your own good first. There's no shame in that. Them bombing each other is one thing, but if you make them fly airplanes into the Microsoft buildings, you could be stuck with Dubya
Asia is too big. (Score:2, Funny)
Don't count on it to change your dependence on DOC (Score:1)
Re:Don't count on it to change your dependence on (Score:2)
Actually this isn't a sustainable position economically. The more work which gets farmed out the greater the economic development of the Asian continent, the richer they become. Funnily enough they're catching up real quick now. In the meantime the US prints money to finance a war in Iraq devaluing the dollar hugely and allowing them to catch up even faster.
Yes
Re:Don't count on it to change your dependence on (Score:1)
Piracy (Score:1)
Then again, Microsoft's grumblings about South Korea and the subsequent brouhaha might presage a new resolve to curb piracy (and with it, inadvertantly erode their global market dominance).
Re:All for open standards....but (Score:2)
Yeah, just like how people using Acrobat or Ghostscript get different "versions" of the PDF file.
Oh, wait...
Switching to ODF is like switching to Metric (Score:1, Troll)
The USA won't change.
A call... (Score:1)
Asia is not one homogenous region guys, and can't be addressed as such. A call to specific countries would probably be more productive.
That said, Asian countries are going to be at the forefront of technological expansion (and by that I mean adoption of new technologies) in the coming years as a result of their increasing literacy rates and prosperity. It makes sense for ODF to squirm in before Microsoft gets a stranglehold on the market
And ODF stand for Oman Defence Force ? (Score:2)