Scott McNealy has a terrific piece in today’s Wall St Journal, Software Hardware that should have all of us thinking, then joining the demand to keep our documents open.

No one would argue that content you create belongs to anyone but you. But, in fact, it doesn’t.

That’s the dirty little secret behind much of the software people use today. In business, in government, in schools and in homes all around the world, we entrust our work to software applications: word processors, spreadsheets, presentation programs and all the rest. And, too often, that’s where we lose control of our own words and thoughts — simply on account of the way we save our documents. Because we tend to store information in formats that are owned and managed by a single dominant company, in a few short years we may no longer be able to access our files if the format is “upgraded.” Or we may be required to buy a new expensive version of the software just to access our own thoughts.

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There is now an open, international standard for common personal productivity applications — spreadsheet, presentation and word-processing programs — called the OpenDocument Format (ODF). Approved by an independent standards body, ODF has the backing of a broad community of supporters including consumer groups, academic institutions, a collection of library associations including the American Library Association, and many leading high-tech companies, but no single company owns it or controls it. (A “standard” created and controlled by a single company is not a true standard.) Any company can incorporate the OpenDocument Format into its products, free of charge, and tear down the barriers to exit.Imagine being able to open any email attachment, read it and make changes, even if you don’t have the exact program it was created in. That’s the kind of interoperability the OpenDocument Format is designed to foster.

If this standard is to become a reality, we must insist on it. In the U.S., Massachusetts has been leading the way with a mandate that all software purchased by the commonwealth comply with ODF. Globally, 13 nations are considering adopting it. The reason is simple. The data belongs to the people, not to the software vendor that created the file format.

If you don’t think this is an issue, take a look at what happened after Hurricane Katrina. People needing emergency services information found that some government Web sites could only be accessed from a single brand of Web browser. Important, publicly-funded information — in some cases life-saving information — was unavailable unless you used that specific brand. That’s like being told you can’t use the highway because you aren’t driving a Ford truck. It seems to me that this is one of those times when a government mandate makes sense — so that we can all use the road and choose what car we want to drive.

Here are the applications that support the OpenDocument Format (ODF).  You won’t see any Apple or Microsoft programs there.   Time for all of us to demand accessibility to our own content.
Think ahead five years, ten years.  Don’t you want to be able to read what you wrote today?