Plain Paper

Suppose I invented some special paper and a special pen.

Suppose that you could only read what you wrote as long as you held the pen close by. As soon as you put the pen down, the words would disappear. And whenever you held the pen close, the words would reappear.

And you could buy it all from me.

Suppose further that my pen wrote in luscious colors. And by pushing a button or holding the pen at a certain angle, you could illustrate as well as write. With my pen, your lines would always be straight, and your letters would always be immaculate. And you could share your work with others.

As long as they also bought my pen.

Suppose that my pen became a great success. Everyone began using it. Instead of a geeky novelty, it became a de facto standard. People wrote letters with it. Committees kept minutes with it. Academics wrote dissertations with it. Organizations drew charts with it.

And it made me billions.

If you wanted to keep notes, you bought from me. If you wanted to read letters, you bought from me. If you wanted to take notes or write lists, you had to buy from me. And of course every few years you had to upgrade.

Now suppose that someone sitting somewhere in the halls of some paper-pushing bureaucracy woke to the folly of this. What of the public record? What of posterity? What of future generations? Will we be able to read our own reports and regulations decades hence?

Not without the pens. Not without my pens.

But then what if this bureaucrat took the issue seriously? What if he acted? If he declared that henceforth all official documents shall be written with pencil or pen or crayon of any sort as long as they work on plain paper that works with standard ink. What if he proclaimed this as a way to ensure openness.

Openness without my pens.

Would it surprise you if accusations and rumors began to fly about this man? Rumors of trips taken at government expense. Accusations of inappropriate reimbursements filed. And would it surprise you if these all proved to be lies?

Don't let it surprise you. My pen is Microsoft Office. My paper is the ever-changing .doc format. The bureaucrat is the Chief Information Officer of the State of Massachusetts. And plain paper is the Open Document Format.

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For more background:
[1] Groklaw/Peter Quinn
[2] Cairns/Mess n Mass

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