Inivation and budgets

The current plan for implementation of open document standard in the public sector has, as I see it, some very serious problems. In this case I don't care if we do a dual standard implementation or not.

The political decision makers (Members of the Parliament) is asking for an overview of the economical impact from such a decision. I say: You can't have it. Noone on the Earth it able to make a bullet proof calculation. And we just have to learn to live with that.

Inovation doesn't com from one year budgets. And thats actually what the Parmiament is asking for here. We don't know what will happen. But what we can do, is to use our minds and brains and decide if this is a good idea or not. And then belive in it. If we don't belive in it, it won't be a success.

How do you think the bio-medical industry is doing inovation ? Do you think that the scientifc research is being done on one year budgets ? I say no. Inovation is about taking a chance or maybe taking several chances. If we are lucky, we will get revenue from one out of ten inovative research projects.

The implementation must be cost neutral. Ok. And how as that suposed to be possible ?
No matter if we implement one or two open standards, it will surtainly initially cost a hell lot of money. But these money will pay back over five or seven years. We agree on that. But how is society supposed to finance this unbalance in cash flow ?
The IT departments has some very limited resources and budgets. They need some kind of instrument to eliminate the unbalance. I don't know if we are talking about 41 mio, 180 mio or even 500 mio kroner. And I don't know if pay-back is five or seven years. And it doesn't actually matter at this moment. What matters is that local governments, institutes etc. can't afford to do the investment.