From Doug's blog:
A month ago, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts posted a draft of its revised Enterprise Technical Reference Model (ETRM) policy, requesting comments from the public. As I noted in a post on June 30, "The ETRM (Enterprise Technical Reference Model) provides an architectural framework used to identify the standards, specifications and technologies recommended for use in the Commonwealth’s computing environment. This update included two document-format changes: updating the OpenDocument Format specification to version 1.1, and adding Ecma 376 (Office Open XML)."
Finally something that makes sense in all the senseless FUD surrounding Open XML nowadays.
The ETRM doesn't just recommend XML-based formats, however. It's a very pragmatic document that looks at the realities of current technology and trends, and it recommends six different document formats, each with well-defined areas of application. That list includes four formats in the "Open Formats" section (ODF, Open XML, plain text and HTML) and two more under "Other Acceptable Formats" (PDF and RTF). The ETRM is accompanied by various comments from the Commenwealth
"The Commonwealth continues on its path toward open, XML-based document formats without reflecting a vendor or commercial bias in ETRM v4.0." "[We] believe that the impact of any legitimate concerns raised about either standard is outweighed substantially by the benefits of moving toward open, XML-based document format standards." Read up on the full story on Doug's blog.