In this article, Coursey seems to be missing the key issue of formats and standards. When people create stuff – documents, presentations, pictures and so on – the OWNER of these productions are the creator, not the maker of the tool USED to create these productions. Hence, when you use a Microsoft product to create a product, YOU own that resultant product NOT Microsoft. Therefore, why should you be FORCED to go back to Microsoft to access your creation? Microsoft is a tool maker. How much data are there sitting in government and corporate (and home machines) whose FORMATs are unknown and therefore effectively LOST to the owner? This is what we need to fight. Coursey confuses – not even considers – this issue. Just because Microsoft has offered their formats to be part of an international standard, while welcome, it not sufficient.

We need governments and enterprises to state in their technology acquisition requests that all data created MUST be stored in formats that are open and published and that nothing hidden or undocumented is used. That is the ONLY way we can continue to access OUR data and choose the tool vendor of OUR choice when access this data.