MR. BAIRD:
Thank you. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Gates, thank you for your comments. I just want to follow up on two issues. [..] I want you to know that we'll pass a budget today that allows for precisely the kind of expansion that you have called for. The Democratic budget allows for a substantial expansion for science and math research and education and then we'll hope our friends in the appropriation side can support that effort as well. I also share your concern about how difficult it can be to bring international scholars here for either work or education purposes.
To the extent that our research and education subcommittee can, we've already had two hearings on this general topic and we will do everything we can to try to facilitate that arrival of scholars and the retention of scholars who have trained here. In your technical expertise, I'd like to ask you a broad question about a technical issue.
One of the great merits of technology because it changes so fast that it brings us better and better things but it also creates problems with legacy information and I'm particularly interested in the issue of Open XML and the broader question about standards and your belief about how things like Open XML and standards, international standards for the Internet - the pros and cons of those and where you see those heading.
MR. GATES:
Well thank you. That is an important area because we're building up more and more records that you want to be able to access and understand and you want to be able to preserve those records over a period of time. In fact, these digital archives will cover a lot of people's activities and parents who want to be able to go back and get essays for children or researchers who want to be able to go back and get the data from different experiment and even libraries — a lot of their collections will be in this digital format and you want to be able to access that. Microsoft is very engaged in the standards process.
There's a new standard we put in front of the International Standards Organization called Open XML and it uses XML in a way that means that anybody using our software or other software that meets a standard will be able to access it out into the future. So it's very important to us that Open XML become an ISO standard so that families and researches and archivists will be able to access information from the past and use it to interact in the future, and it's by mining data like this that I think a lot of the advances in understanding how education is best done or understanding what should be in the medical field, so it's both an important thing for innovation and an important thing for citizens to have access to information.
MR. BAIRD:
I appreciate that. I actually have, believe it or not, some old 5 1/ inch floppy disks in the CPM format which if I'm ever achieve anything of note, some poor librarian is going to have to go find an old CPM machine and dig out my great works from back then, which will be hard because there will be very few, but I think your point is well -aken and I applaud Microsoft for its leadership in this area and the whole issue of standards.
One of the issues on H1Bs that I particularly want to compliment your company on is I hear from constituents: “Hey, wait a second. Why are we doing more to let folks international train either stay or come into our country? Shouldn't we be doing more to educate our own people?” and Microsoft really has been a leader in that. Schools throughout this country have benefited from Microsoft's leadership.
Foreign view:
I wonder, Honourable Mr. Brian Baird
…how difficult it can be to bring international scholars here for either work or education purposes.
… Have you ever tried to understand why they chose other places? Scholars need an attractive open minded environment. How would you attract international specialists if your political process appears to work hard to support an impression that denigrates your nation? I don't require a politician to be educated and intelligent. Simple common sense tells that parliament is no place for product promotion. Your staged open xml soft balls to Mr. Gates make me feel embarrassed about you and the US democracy. Open XML is a showcase for many issues you are ignorant about.
I wonder, Mr. Gates
So it's very important to us that Open XML become an ISO standard so that families and researches and archivists will be able to access information from the past and use it to interact in the future,..
what ISO standardization of your proprietary format OOXML which is already an ECMA standard would change here. Do you believe in your own arguments to benefit 'families and researchers' or do you just bullshit politicians? And by the way, didn't you retire from Microsoft recently?