Peter Quinn, the former state CIO of Massachusetts, is on a European speaking tour. Today he spoke in Copenhagen at a public meeting arranged by Prosa. He gave a great presentation (similar to this presentation from last week) about the work of ITD and their Technical Reference Model (TRM) in particular. The Mass TRM is known mainly for adopting and enforcing the OASIS Open Document Format (for more about this, see Andy Updegrove’s extensive coverage).
Quinn’s story is compelling and his message is extremely important. The message is that opennes is the path to technological prophylaxis. Governments need to transform, do more with less, and open standards and technologies are essential for making this work.
Quinn quotes John F. Kennedy: “There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”
Here in Denmark – where, once in a while, the old Viking strain shows through – standards have already become a political issue, and I hope Quinn can help stirring up political attention (he’s meeting politicians, journalists and bureaucrats on Monday).
