“Dr Hopkirk is a respected advocate for “openness and interoperability of systems, of people, processes and information technologies”. He has in the past, for example, been an invited observer at events such as Open Forum Europe.

However, at the time he was engaged to facilitate the Open Standards roundtable, while we were aware that he represented the National Computing Centre on the Microsoft Interoperability Executive Customer Council (along with 40 other CIOs/CTOs across the public and private sector who participate in a voluntary capacity) he did not declare the fact that he was advising Microsoft directly on the Open Standards consultation.”

That sound’s a lot like Plamondon’s Technological Evangelism:
“A stacked panel, on the other hand, is like a stacked deck: it is packed with people who, on the face of things, should be neutral, but who are in fact strong supporters of our technology. The key to stacking a panel is being able to choose the moderator. Most conference organizers allow the moderator to select the panel, so if you can pick the moderator, you win. Since you can’t expect representatives of our competitors to speak on your behalf, you have to get the moderator to agree to having only “independent ISVs” on the panel. No one from Microsoft or any other formal backer of the competing technologies would be allowed – just ISVs who have to use this stuff in the “real world.” Sounds marvelously independent doesn’t it? In fact, it allows us to stack the panel with ISVs that back our cause. Thus, the “independent” panel ends up telling the audience that our technology beats the others hands down. Get the press to cover this panel, and you’ve got a major win on your hands.”

Yep. I think M$ was caught with a hand in the cookie-jar.

see Open Standards consultation – important update by Digital Engagement on 26/04/2012

The Open Standards Roundtable was an event put on by the Government of the UK to frame it’s policies on IT and the like. FLOSS is under discussion. Having M$ regulating that was like having the fox guarding the chickens.

According to NetApplications, the market area of San Francisco is a hotbed for use of GNU/Linux in California:

Not only do they show a steady slide for MacOS and that other OS, but steady growth for GNU/Linux. A blip a couple of weeks ago could indicate someone is testing a further roll-out. Stay tuned. At 0.16 percentage per week, it will be only a couple of years before GNU/Linux catches that other OS in share. As California goes, so goes the world.