This Just In! California Joins The Race

ConsortiumInfo.org – And California Makes Four

The ConsortiumInfo Standards Blog has the story. This is so exciting that it makes me want to call my Assemblyman to not only support it, but to sign on as a sponsor.

The California Assembly has 80 members, in districts that cross town, city, and county boundaries in an effort to balance the number of residents in each district. Generally, two Assembly districts are paired to create one of the forty Senate districts. In order to be successful, this bill must pass both the Assembly and the Senate.

The January 1 starting date is normal for California statutes. With some exceptions, nearly all California laws take effect on that date each year.

Like Texas, California’s bill would require the state IT arm () to evaluate and select a format, which could easily be hijacked by large software vendors in back rooms. (I was going to say “smoke filled rooms”, but that would violate the California anti-smoking laws in the Health and Safety Code.)

If you live here in California, I hope you will join me in contacting your legislative representatives to urge them to support the bill–with, perhaps, clarification that ODF is to be used–for the good of the state and its citizens.

Update: Benjamin Horst of Solid Office also has information from a ComputerWorld article.  Link to California bill: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_1651-1700/ab_1668_bill_20070223_introduced.html.

technorati tags:ODF, Open+Standards

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