If you’ll remember, MA Chief Technology Officer Peter Quinn was the <a
href=”http://bluemassgroup.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=945″>driving
force behind moving Massachusetts to an Open Document format
standard, in which the documents that the state produced would be in a
format completely open to software not made by a single company, namely
Microsoft. He was 1. <a
href=”http://bluemassgroup.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=949″>hit by a
bogus investigation into his travel activities, which was aided by
2. <a
href=”http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/11/26/romney_administration_reviewing_trips_made_by_technology_chief/”>a
smear report by the Globe, and 3. eventually <a
href=”http://bluemassgroup.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1009″>completely
cleared.
Well, now he’s <a
href=”http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/12/28/technology_adviser_quits_unexpectedly”>resigned:<a
href=”http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/12/28/technology_adviser_quits_unexpectedly”>
Peter J. Quinn, who has headed the Informational Technology
division
since 2002, said in an e-mail to his staff that he was resigning to
avoid undercutting the drive to adopt the initiative by 2007.
”It
is also readily apparent that I have become a lightning rod with regard
to any IT initiative. Even the smallest initiatives are being mitigated
or stopped by some of the most unlikely and often uninformed parties,”
Quinn wrote.
”I view these circumstances as quite troubling
because the good work laid out by the IT Commission is slowly being
strangled and brought to a halt. And the last thing I can let happen is
my presence be the major contributing factor marginalizing the good
work of ITD and the entire IT community,” he wrote.
What the hell is going on here? Quinn is undercut by the
administration, accused falsely, cleared — and now he resigns?
He’s the “lightning rod”, and resigns to take one for the team? Smelly,
smelly, smelly stuff.
I suspect that the real story is that Mitt needs MicroDough to give him
a chance to get to be President, and throwing Quinn under the bus is a
way for him to prove his corporate-agenda bona fides. It all adds up:
Pfizer pflane rides, Microsoft mau-mau … and <a
href=”http://point08.blogspot.com/2005/12/circle-of-dough.html”>sco
predicts Bain-based Dunkin’ Dough will rise to support Mitt’s run
for Prez.
To Globe reporter Stephen Kurkjian: Follow the money.
<a
href=”http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/12/28/technology_adviser_quits_unexpectedly”>
This bit from the memo caught my eye:
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“Even the smallest initiatives are being mitigated or stopped by some of the most unlikely and often uninformed parties.”
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p>
I’ve only marginally followed this story. CMP/TechWeb reported thus:
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p>
“However, powerful politicians, including the governor’s administration and Democratic Secretary of State William Galvin and other Democratic legislators are receptive to Microsoft’s approach.”
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p>
and following your links to this post by jbz at SharpTools of
November 22nd:
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p>
“Microsoft had sent a local Beacon Hill professional lobbyist, who charges multiple thousands of dollars a month. He was sitting there doing business on his cell phone, sending out runners, etc. What he was doing became clear later; while his pet State Senator was reiterating his client’s talking points for the media, and everyone on the ‘Open Source’ side of the fence was sitting in the hearing either listening or awaiting their turn in the hotseat, he was busily lobbying to get a modification made to another piece of legislation. “
<
p>
Who was the lobbyist, who was the State Senator? I’ve exhausted my search time, here.
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p>
If there were an issue for LeftyBlogs to rally behind, it could have been this. I regret not spending more time in my session at the BlogLeft conference to look into a specific issue. On the other hand, I do think that open formats are inevitable, and this may be a minor speed bump. But back on the first hand, hey, this is a democracy after all there’s no sense yammering on if you don’t call your state rep once in a while.
Link.
The Post-Intelligencer (what a name) reports: “Backer of Microsoft challenge steps down.”