November 04, 2005

Should Microsoft be the world's government?

Dear Governor Romney:

Microsoft should not be the world's government.

Think about it. As your experience of the world comes more and more through that little glass screen on your information appliance, who governs that experience?

Consider that little lock icon for a moment. It involves something called a "certification authority." OK, who's the authority? The UN? The ITU? Some other instance of duly constituted public authority?

Of course not. The vendor of the operating system decides what "certification authority" (i.e. commercial enterprise posturing as city hall) gets to put that lock icon on there so that you can trust what goes on in a site. As Matt Blaze so eloquently noted, "a commercial certification authority protects you from anyone whose money they refuse to take."

Microsoft is the court of highest authority that governs how you experience the world through that little screen. They even tell you what kind of electronic paper and ink is acceptable: only documents produced by their own Microsoft Office software may be considered legitimate.

It's amazing that it has taken this long, but my own U.S. state of Massachusetts has finally declared the naked emperor's laws to be nonsense. Starting 2007, state agencies have to make documents so that they are readable and usable by any software, not just Microsoft's. Letters, spreadsheets, presentations, etc. must conform to the OpenDocument standard.

Microsoft fought to keep this from happening of course, and twice they failed to assert their governmental authority over legitimate government. Today we learn that Microsoft's latest effort is to assign Marc Pacheco, their Minister of Subordinate Government Affairs, to the task of bringing the offending agency, the state's Information Technology Division, to heel. The Minister of SGA's edict is that the Information Technology Division shall no longer set document standards. (Pacheco also serves in the Massachusetts Senate, with a powerful committee position.)

My letter to (presidential hopeful) Mitt Romney, sent this morning:

Dear Governor Romney:

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts and its Information Technology Division have received worldwide acclaim for their decision to require the various state agencies to support the OpenDocument standard. That such a decision is seen as courageous attests to the fact that Microsoft is in the process of becoming the world's government.

Among the tens of thousands of provinces, states, nations, counties and other jurisdictional entities in the world, Massachusetts is the first to proclaim that Microsoft is not their superior governmental entity. As Massachusetts is the home of some of the world's most important information technology standards bodies, it is fitting that we should take the lead in this important effort.

I have just learned by way of a London-based newsletter that State Senator Marc Pacheco, chairman of the Senate's Committee on Post Audit and Oversight, is leading an effort to ensure that Massachusetts does not stand in the way of Microsoft's campaign to become our government, by effectively replacing the Information Technology Division's responsibilies in setting document standards.

As a lifelong Massachusetts voter and political activist, and as founder of Delphi, the company that popularized the Internet before it was sold to News Corporation, I strongly urge you to note that the eyes of the nation and the world are on Massachusetts in this critical issue. Please let the world know that Microsoft is not our government.

Sincerely,

Wes Kussmaul

If you agree that Microsoft should not be our world government, please join me in communicating with Governor Romney and with any Massachusetts voters that you happen to know.

Posted on November 04, 2005 at 03:49 PM

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