California always likes to position itself as on the cutting edge (disclaimer – I'm a 3rd generation native, so biased). The Governator has proposed something akin to universal health care, and has put in place some tough anti-global warming measures. But California has been pretty quiet on the ODF front, with Massachusetts taking the lead. But the open document issue is now surfacing in the Golden State. According to this blog by Andy Updegrove, there's a bill in the works that would make it a requirement to use open formats for state documents in the future. Andy points out this is similar to legislation introduced in Texas and Minnesota.
Format acceptance thrives on the network effect. The more people that use a format, the more valuable it becomes. So State government decisions to adopt open formats like ODF will only increase the value of those formats. We're pleased to see the continued interest in driving open formats in the public sector.
