Bill would move state records to open format.
A proposed bill before the California State Assembly would require the state to adopt an open document format for all government records.
The move would make California, with a population of more than 33 million, the largest government body to move to an open document format.
Open document formats are gaining appeal with governments looking for a cheap and effective method of standardising the way electronic records are organised and accessed because they are publicly available for all developers to use.
The bill stressed that a specific format was not being suggested, only that "an open XML-based file format" is used.
Microsoft and IBM are currently locked in a battle over rival open XML-based formats. Big Blue is backing the Open Document Format (ODF), while Microsoft is proposing Open-XML, the format used by Office 2007.
The California bill states that an appropriate format will be chosen by the state's Department of Technology Services on the basis of compatibility with current systems.
It will also consider licensing status, i.e. whether the format is royalty-free, and the extent to which a format is widely used.
The bill is backed by San Francisco-based assemblyman Mark Leno. If passed, it would set 1 January 2008 as the deadline for all state agencies to begin generating and recording all official electronic documents as open format files.
Massachusetts is the only US state to mandate a move to an open document format. After a heated battle, the state ended up settling on ODF, but allowing for the use of converters that allow Microsoft Office to export to ODF.
State governments in Texas and Minnesota are currently considering proposals to adopt open document systems.
Last summer, Belgium became the first country to attempt to move its entire infrastructure to ODF, and plans to begin implementing the new format sometime next year.