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Re: Faux Pas -- web publication in proprietary formats at ietf.org

2005-11-03 20:57:44
Hello,

lists-ietf(_at_)mohsen(_dot_)banan(_dot_)1(_dot_)byname(_dot_)net wrote:
> As of
> Wed Nov  2 22:47:14 PST 2005
> the "Restaurant Guide" in
> http://www.ietf.org/meetings/IETF-64.html
> points to
> http://www.ietf.org/meetings/Restaurant_Guide_Map.ppt
>
> This information is provided in Microsoft
> PowerPoint, a vendor-specific proprietary format.
> This is the only format in which this information
> is available on the IETF website.
>
> It is wildly inappropriate for IETF to be using a
> proprietary format on its web page.
>
> For years we have been fighting this.  Attached
> below is the form letter that I send back each
> time I receive a Microsoft Word document. The same
> concept applies to Microsoft's PowerPoint.
>
> This is particularly bad for an entity that claims
> to be a standards organization. Fix it quick.

> ---Subject: I Prefer Not to Receive Informaton in Proprietary Formats
>
> This is an automatic message:
>
> You sent the document in Microsoft Word format, a secret
> proprietary format, so it is hard for me to read. If you
> send me plain text, HTML, or PDF, then I will read it.

PDF is *very* vendor-specific and proprietary. Who sets the standards for
PDF? I remember there used to be discussions here if the RFC's should be
published in PDF also. It's always rejected of course, even if PDF is
probably the best standard you can get for a formated document (better than
postscript that it was derrived from). So you may want to ask people for
Postscript there if you are really that centric about open standards. :-)

> Please recognize that this note is not about what you
> may have wished to communicate in that document. You
> have made the implicit assumption that I would be able
> to easily read the document in that format. That
> assumption is a mistake.
> [..] blah blah [..]
> But above all, sending people Word documents puts
> pressure on them to use Microsoft software and helps to
> deny them any other choice. In effect, you become a
> buttress of the Microsoft monopoly. This pressure is a
> major obstacle to the broader adoption of free
> software. Would you please reconsider the use of Word
> format for communication with other people?

I think you are just against Microsoft formats, thats all. You don't really
care about using other proprietary formats or not. But that doesn't concern
this issue, so why you add this?

Concerning this "Restaurant_Guide_Map.ppt", I agree it really should be in
HTML (its not even a Presentation but just one page with one picture).

The use of standards in this world is shyzophrene, I used to be against HTML
emails too, but I got used to it and consider it very practical to mark
words in diffrent colors in long replies. But I imagine if I send a html
mail to this list I will get flamed (depends on the list police of html
email though).

I wonder actually, given that HTML is a open standard, if all the ID's, RFC,
Std's couldn't be spiced up a little with some bold tags and colors :-)

One side effect of open standards is of course that they change all time
cause developpers like to play with them... and it becomes messy (like the Web).

Best Regards,

Thomas

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