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Norwegian Minister: Proprietary Formats No Longer Acceptable in Communication with Government
andwest.com ^ | Monday, 27 June 2005

Posted on 06/27/2005 12:10:49 PM PDT by N3WBI3

On presenting his new plan for information technology in Norway - "eNorge 2009 – the digital leap", Norwegian Minister of Modernization Morten Andreas Meyer today at a press conference in Oslo declared "Proprietary formats will no longer be acceptable in communication between citizens and government."

Taking great care not to mention the name Microsoft directly, but rather referring to "the spreadsheet almost everyone use" or saying this is the last time I will present a plan for information technology being broadcast on the net in Windows Media, the Minister sent strong signals in the direction of Redmond to open up or become irrelevant to the Norwegian Government.

The Minister, as part of the plan, has charged all government institutions, both at the national and local level, to by the end of 2005 have worked out a recommendation for the use of open source code in the public sector. Further by the end of 2006 every body of the public sector in Norway must have in place a plan for the use of open source code and open standards.

The plan calls for a massive restructuring of Public sector in Norway where digital communication between every citizen and government will become the norm. Part of the plan is to provide every citizen with their own "home page" for communication with government and for opening services 24/7 to the public. In the process every Norwegian citizen will be provided with a personal electronic ID as a replacement for the numerous user-ids and passwords currently used throughout.

The plan clearly favors Open Source communities and solutions, and Linux, but will also favors Apple computer where increasingly open source technologies and open standards are finding their way into the historically proprietary Mac OS. It remains to be seen what response the plan will prompt from Microsoft, who has been very reluctant to open up its word processing, spreadsheet and media formats. Without support for open standard formats, Microsoft will rapidly make itself irrelevant as supplier to both public sector, businesses and private persons, as they all have the need to communicate electronically with the government in the future.

Also institutions and companies like the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) and TV2 will be greatly affected by the new policies, having based their Internet interactive TV and radio transmissions mainly on Microsoft Media formats.

Of great interest to businesses, the Minister also announced that public information, in the future, should be available free or significantly cheaper than current practice. A move he hoped would pave the way for new businesses taking advantage of this type of information.


TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: opensource
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To: Golden Eagle
Sorry I assumed you used these logical fallacies so often you would know them by their proper name..

The fallacy is to assert that because two events occur together, they must be causally related. It's a fallacy because it ignores other factors that may be the cause(s) of the events.

"Literacy rates have steadily declined since the advent of television. Clearly television viewing impedes learning."

61 posted on 06/28/2005 10:31:36 AM PDT by N3WBI3 (I musta taken a wrong turn at 198.182.159.17)
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To: N3WBI3

What do millits have to do with anything? Are all communist goverments mandating millits as their official anything? Are they using millits to design and build nuclear weapons? Do they get their millits from US companies for free? No, No, and No.


62 posted on 06/28/2005 10:36:03 AM PDT by Golden Eagle
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To: Golden Eagle
It is to point out that your example is Cum hoc ergo propter hoc.. you may not like it but there is no logical leg for your current argument to stand on..
63 posted on 06/28/2005 10:38:26 AM PDT by N3WBI3 (I musta taken a wrong turn at 198.182.159.17)
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To: Golden Eagle
But the chines feed the millit to the people who are designing and building nuclear weapons.. and oh goodness shadowace feeds it to his bird... whats it all mean?
64 posted on 06/28/2005 10:39:22 AM PDT by N3WBI3 (I musta taken a wrong turn at 198.182.159.17)
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To: ShadowAce
Whats your bird up to anyway...
65 posted on 06/28/2005 10:44:45 AM PDT by N3WBI3 (I musta taken a wrong turn at 198.182.159.17)
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To: N3WBI3
My wife found this cockatiel sitting in the middle of the road a week ago. She took it to the nearest house, but it wasn't theirs, so she brought it home. We've never owned a bird in our lives, and now we have this small Aussie parrot....

I'm still not sure what to do with it. :)

66 posted on 06/28/2005 10:49:54 AM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: N3WBI3
It is to point out that your example is Cum hoc ergo propter hoc..

Sorry, when you started out with "moer" I thought it was just more of your normal gibberish. But when there are repeated examples, in fact near if not 100% consistent between them, the logic is sound.

67 posted on 06/28/2005 10:56:01 AM PDT by Golden Eagle
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To: Golden Eagle

It could be 100% and its still not causal.. sorry kiddo..


68 posted on 06/28/2005 10:58:43 AM PDT by N3WBI3 (I musta taken a wrong turn at 198.182.159.17)
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To: ShadowAce
the CEO of my company has one of those, the damn thing is a biter. I was on his ranch (beautiful place in NM) talking with him when the thing hopped onto my shoulder an bit me..

Maybe it was a communist plot, after all he fed it millit, the same food that chicom weapons designers use..

69 posted on 06/28/2005 11:01:17 AM PDT by N3WBI3 (I musta taken a wrong turn at 198.182.159.17)
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To: ShadowAce
I used to have a beautiful rainbow lory, very peaceful and easy to care for. In the sunlight, his colors were electric. Good luck with your new friend.


70 posted on 06/28/2005 11:03:17 AM PDT by Golden Eagle
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