“It is perhaps no surprise that Minnesota, a blue state like
Massachusetts and heir to the political traditions of the Prairie
Populists, should be the situs of a bill to require ‘open data
formats.’ In spirit, this is a good thing, as it indicates a
broadening appeal for open document format standards that, if
missing, would be worrisome. But is the bill as submitted an
encouraging signal that a bandwagon effect is taking hold, or a
step towards standards Babel, and a leap backwards? The question is
a serious one for a variety of reasons, and cuts to the heart of
why standards exist.“Clearly, the definition of an ‘open standard’ contained in the
Minnesota bill includes many of the attributes that make a standard
useful, such as requirements intended to prevent ‘lock-in’ by a
single proprietary vendor…”