Open Document Format is now an ISO standard

Located here is the information regarding the ratification of Open Document Format (ODF) as an ISO standard 26300.2006. This is a great deal for governments such as the state of Massachusetts where it is in a broil of a fight with Microsoft over this very thing. From the web site, I quote:

Carol Sliwa at ComputerWorld has a hat trick of excellent stories just now on ODF in Massachusetts, based on over 300 emails secured under the Massachusetts Public Records Law (the local analogue of the Federal Freedom of Information Act), as well as research into lobbying records and reports. The longest and in some ways most intriguing article focuses on Microsoft's lobbying efforts in Massachusetts, and on State CIO Louis Gutierrez's efforts to counter those efforts. One of the two shorter articles (they will appear as side bars in the print issue) provides details on the various individuals - both Democrat and Republican - as well as associations that Microsoft hired in the last two years to work both sides of the aisle in Massachusetts. The third and final article reports more narrowly on Massachusetts' decision in the summer of 2005 not to approve Microsoft's XML formats as an open standards.

Open is always better.