The Government has offered Australia's three mobile operators, and vividwireless, renewal of their existing spectrum allocated on 15 year licences in the late 90s and early 2000s at set prices, while the Government expects to rake in $3 billion.
What I find most amusing about the Burton study is that after tens of pages of pro-Microsoft arguments, the conclusion offered by the two authors is not in any reflective of what they have said. Any individual with an average IQ who reads the arguments contained therein can only come to one conclusion: OOXMl good, ODF bad.
It just tells me one thing - the authors do not appear to be convinced by their own arguments!
When countries vote on a proposal at an international body, the merits of the case generally come last. Or probably second last. As an example one can cite the case of a large number of landlocked countries voting on the same lines as Japan at the International Whaling Commission. The yen serves as a powerful means of turning a naysayer to one who willingly says yeah.
One doesn't need any great "study" to see the defects, both technical and otherwise, in the OOXML proposal - there is a well-argued piece by South African Russell Ossendryver, who now lives in the US, which covers both the technical shortcomings and also what the fallout could be if a proprietary format was adoped as a competing ISO standard to ODF.
But then Ossendryver may possibly not be considered a "sober" writer or analyst by many of those who have barrows to push. His passionate style may not be considered kosher by those who use arcane buzzwords to create a mist of confusion.
It's kind of amazing that while individuals like Ossendryver have to mount the arguments that could tilt the vote - the man must have spent considerable time to put that article together - huge groups which claim to be about spreading the use of FOSS, groups which could have much more influence on the process of throwing out what I would term a bastard child, are sitting back and pondering how they can support OOXML.
Reminds me of the famous line about Nero fiddling while Rome was burning...
David Bass
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