Open source advocacy

[ebeyer]

I am contemplating a push to get a large professional (volunteer) organization to shift away from proprietary file formats, toward open source ones. I have heard and seen many arguments supporting open source in general, but does anyone here have a favorite web site, article or essay that articulates the arguments for open source very well?

Thanks in advance,

ebeyer

[taurus]

Move to Cafe.

[TuxCrafter]

Would like to know to :-D

[mostwanted]

You can't talk about open source formats because formats are not like programs, they don't have source code. A format is a specification for a data cluster. There are open formats (meaning the specs are open to the public) and there are proprietary formats (meaning the specs are not open to the public). Then there are open standards which are open formats regulated by standards comities.

[ebeyer]

You can't talk about open source formats because formats are not like programs, they don't have source code. A format is a specification for a data cluster. There are open formats (meaning the specs are open to the public) and there are proprietary formats (meaning the specs are not open to the public). Then there are open standards which are open formats regulated by standards comities.

As much as it would be great if everybody was using open source software, the reality is that vast majority of people I work with use MS Office on Windows. What I think I can ask for, reasonably, is that people make available content in an open source format, rather than *.doc, *.ppt, *.xls everything.

EB

[.t.]

Does MS Office save to open formats?

Anyway, you could start by reading my essays (although they're not specifically about formats). See my sig.

[mostwanted]

As much as it would be great if everybody was using open source software, the reality is that vast majority of people I work with use MS Office on Windows. What I think I can ask for, reasonably, is that people make available content in an open source format, rather than *.doc, *.ppt, *.xls everything.

EB

Why was it necessary to quote me? I said nothing that contradicts this...?

[ebeyer]

Dunno. I just hit the reply button and that's what came up. Sorry for any misunderstanding.

[ebeyer]

In reading your essay, I found typos:

'if you can legally get pas the DRM that is.'

should be
'if you can legally get past the DRM that is.'

'The software that runs the device is not free, so no once can continue to improve it. '

should be
'The software that runs the device is not free, so no one can continue to improve it. '

'The company paid vast licence feed to Microsoft for the use of the WMA format, '

should be
'The company paid vast licence fees to Microsoft for the use of the WMA format, '