Here are my own random notes from the town hall meeting, "File Format Wars: Do They Matter?"

The meeting was led by Bob Cummings, Charlie Lowe, David Blakesley, Nick Carbone, Ron Ralthazar, and Diane Penrod.

Bob Cummings

He explained the file format wars between ODF and OOXML, noting that both have now achieved ISO standards. The big news is that Microsoft just announced that it will now support ODF.

Ron B.

He began with a metaphor based on the railroads. They were made possible only when a standard gauge was adopted. He says we are now at the same turning point with technology. With the railroads, the big guys won. RB says Microsoft will probably do the same. However, it is exciting that they have said they will support ODF. This is an indication that their decisions are being pushed by the open source movement.

Nick C.

Though technology is changing rapidly, the file format wars aren’t going to change much about the way we teach. We work with and around the tools, and we choose what works for our assignments.

Charlie Lowe

Points out that Microsoft brought in a revenue of 11.76 billion in 2006 and that Microsoft Office is a huge cash cow for them. They put a lot of money into assuring it remains that way.
He is concerned with the fact that as a discipline we uncritically accept Microsoft Office as standard and push our students toward spending the money to support this large corporation. He asks how file formats affect Microsoft’s ability to influence our decisions.

Diane Pinrod

We are now moving toward Web 3.0, the semantic web. She mentions that every movement has its zeitgeist and that the zeitgeist for the information age was “information must be free.” She asks what the zeitgeist for the file format wars is. She says that intellectual conversation can move us toward a zeitgeist so that we make deliberate choices rather than just go with what is pushed on us from other sources.

David Blakesley

Regarding the file format wars, he wonders how long it takes most open source supporters to relent to file conversions after having to send .docx files back to students multiple times when they are unable to open them. He says we meet the standards of our readers, editors, students, and so on “one attachment at a time.”

Charlie Lowe

Whatever we choose , it is the decision making that is important. We didn’t choose .doc. It just happened that it became the default when we weren’t making choices.

Ron B.

We are moving away from the 8.5 x 11 paper paradigm. He says this in response to an audience member who asks is we need to move away from word processors as the paradigm for writing (in favor of wikis, etc).
Ron gives the example of the Kindle and says we will no longer be writing for the page but for the machine.

Audience member

Think in terms of open writing rather than open file format.

Diane

Journalists used Twitter to report on the tornado in Colorado. The death of the newspaper will happen in the next 30 years. We are moving to web 3.0, the semantic web.

Bob

Is open source important enough that we should endorse it?

Cynthia Selfe

“I would endorse choice rather than open source.” Only a small percentage in our discipline even know the file format wars are going on. Most teachers will just use whatever works without feeling like they have a lot of choice.

Charlie

Lots of students are now using Google Docs. It might be our students who push our choices. The new generation is making its own choices.

Cynthia

Endorse choice.

Janice Walker

We need to support open source initiatives in order to assure that we do have choices. The 4Cs in principle has already endorsed open source.

Charlie

The CCCC resolution says that we should explore open source as an option (rather than saying that we should adopt it). This is a big issue because we are up against a monopoly.

Audience member

What about style sheets? We push MLA on students? How do we then advocate choice in other areas?

Nick

Once you are in the classroom you are in charge of the choices. We have to have some standards. The important part is not what tool we use but what uses we create for it. A butter knife might be a screwdriver, or it might be a butter knife. Pedagogical tools give the same room in which to create our own uses.

Ron

Tools are getting faster and smarter. A lot of these issues will just go away as new tools emerge.
Google Docs is the most interesting thing going on with word processing (with collaborative elements, etc).

Charlie

Got so excited talking about xml versions of Open Office, I couldn’t keep up with what he said. :)

Lisa Gerrard

Points out divide in discipline between new media composition people and all of the others who don’t want to spend a lot of time learning new applications.