Minnesota Introduces “Open Data Formats” Bill

After Massachusetts and EU thoughts on including “open formats” in their laws, yet another example might be coming: the US State of Minnesota introduces “Open Data Formats” Bill, in short a requirement for all Executive branch agencies in the state to “use open standards in situations where the other requirements of a project do not make it technically impossible to do that.”

The bill is especially focused on “open data formats” as it includes a definition of “open standards” which would be conducive to open source implementations of open standards. The text of this special section can be found in the section 1. under paragraph (f) of Minnesota Statutes Chapter 16E.

The open source community is happy to see this. If Minnesota successfully adopts the “Open Formats” bill, other governmental bodies are more likely follow and vendor-dependence is about do decline in the future.
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