Star-Telegram.com reports that Texas representative Marc Veasey is pushing for the state to mandate all all its documents be produced in a freely-accessible format such as OpenDocument.

Veasey, a local Democrat, says the move could save the state millions of dollars by stopping payments of hefty software licensing fees to such companies as Microsoft and ensure that Texas doesn’t lose any of its digital history. “My bill ensures these documents are always accessible to the public,” Veasey said.

It could also mean that many state workers may see familiar Microsoft products such as Word and Excel replaced with lesser-known competitors on their work computers.

Detractors counter that the bill is anti-competitive.

I doubt it will pass, but it’s good to see another government body trying to adopt standardized formats.

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