Digistan.org

Please welcome a new foundation to aid the cause of freedom and open standards: Digistan.

The Digital Standards Organization (Digistan) seeks to promote customer choice, vendor competition, and overall growth in the global digital economy through the understanding, development, and adoption of free and open digital standards (“open standards”).

I first came across the group via a post on Glyn Moody’s blog the other day which in turn led me to this piece written by a chap who calls himself Dennis Byron (I can only assume that he has no relation to the famous poet). To be frank, he must be either very stupid, or on the payroll of a large software company the world’s largest convicted monopolist. To make the comments he does shows such ignorance that it quite beggars belief…

Let’s start with the opening paragraph shall we? (highlight mine)

Another anti-Microsoft (MSFT) front group has emerged in favour of “free and open standards,” hyping what it calls the Hague Declaration and making some absurd connection to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The propagandists, partially funded by publicly traded companies, have a little trouble describing what that term “free and open standards” means (or even using it consistently), but the group has no trouble indicating its political stripes. Unbelievably it calls itself Digistan, apparently to identify with the fascist terrorists based in countries and regions using the Farsi-based suffix “stan.”

Honestly. Where the f*** did that come from? Stan means “place of” or “land” for pete’s sake. And “Digi”, well I’m sure you can guess. How you get from Digital Standards to Fascist Terrorists is really just too much for my simple mind to comprehend.

All of these front groups percolate around about two dozen individuals, mostly European. The vast left-wing conspiracy of George Soros works around the edges of their mostly web-site-only organizations…

So, let’s see. Dennis now draws what must be one of the world’s largest generalisations by tying all groups who support freedom and Openness to just 24 people and somehow manages to ink in George Soros and Left Wing (Socialist by inference) politics. Blimey, I must say, having read the Digistan Mission and the Hague Declaration I didn’t see any of those conspiratorial links at all! Just for the record I’m a Tory (Conservative, Capitalist) voter and supporter of free and open source software and open standards. I see no conflict there at all. And neither do the Conservative Party who are quite vocal in their support for Open Source software; unlike our current Labour (left wing) government. So how would I fit in with Byron’s analysis I wonder?

I’d also like to educate our very ignorant Mr Byron about Left Wing politics in Europe: there isn’t much of the kind he seems to imagine. Our socialist and left wing governments and opposition parties are, in the main, capitalist by nature and support free market economics: they wouldn’t get in the EU if they didn’t. This is unlike the Government of the USA for example who engage in and condone market distorting activities such as allowing convicted monopolists to go unpunished, or using embargoes and punitive import tariffs to hinder free trade with anyone who doesn’t pay the right homage to Uncle Sam.

And how did George Soros come into this absurd rant? From the Wikipedia we read:

“George Soros has made his mark as an enormously successful speculator, wise enough to largely withdraw when still way ahead of the game. The bulk of his enormous winnings is now devoted to encouraging transitional and emerging nations to become ‘open societies,’ open not only in the sense of freedom of commerce but – more important – tolerant of new ideas and different modes of thinking and behavior.”

Ahhh now I see. Mr Byron clearly feels extremely jealous of George’s speculative skills and also seems to hate anyone who is interested in protecting or advocating freedom and openness. (Who is the terrorist now Mr Byron?)

I love this…

If only these lefties could be time warped back to the last century so that they could ‘fight the right’ in Spain (or sit in the Les Deux Maggot and talk about fighting the right in Spain). Then the rest of us could avoid having our tax dollars wasted and our share values diminished.

I wonder if Mr Byron has ever been to Spain? Do you think he might like to ask some of it’s inhabitants about General Franco and whether they prefer fascist dictatorships to democracy, freedom and membership of the world’s largest free trading community? I like the “Les Deux Maggot” reference but can only guess as to what he really knows about it.

And why has Digistan got anything to do Mr Byron’s Tax Dollars? As for his portfolio, rather than bleating on about his dwindling share value in a tired and very last-millennia software company monopoly that is finally getting some serious competitive pressure from the left-field that is really hard to attack (since it is free), he’d be much better dumping his M$ stock and looking for the “new money”, especially in some of the highly successful and rapidly growing Open Source software companies.

The rest of his rant continues in much the same vein. No research or facts to support his claims and little argument that makes any sense anyway.

But, having said all the above, I must thank you Mr Byron for introducing me to Digistan. I signed the declaration immediately after reading it and will now be contacting Digistan to see how my company can help to support and grow their campaign to fight for freedom and open standards.

If I were you Mr Byron, I think you probably need to retire to the golf course…

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5 Comments

  • […] UK PLC to use Open Source Do you remember that total Jerk Dennis Byron? The chap who thought that Digistan was some sort of terrorist organisation? Well […]

  • Dennis Byron says:

    I was recently researching the functionality and performance of Google vs. LiveSearch (using my own published work as the thing I was searching for for the obvious reason) when I came across the above inaccurate and misleading post. The coward who wrote this drivel can send me an email at any time. I give you a courtesy you do not seem to extend to the subjects of your rambling, or at least that you didn’t extend to me. Unlike you, my email contact information is clearly provided on my website whereas you hide behind some anonymous “enquiries” mailbox linked to your business from another site.

    Of all your BS above, it is the sentence “ No research or facts to support his claims…” that causes me to bother to comment I don’t really give a damn what you think of my opinion but I care very much when the accuracy and thoroughness of my research is questioned.

    There are three claims in my article. The sources are also cited right in the article. All are indisputable:

    1. “Digistan was launched thanks to a grant from the Information Program of Open Society Institute (the George Soros connection) and matching grants from OpenForum Europe and the European Software Market Association.”

    That wording is right off the digiterrorists’ web site.

    2. “… the former is the front group behind other front groups like NOOOXML and Document Freedom Day.”

    3. “The OpenForum Europe’s events, as well as possibly the organization itself, have been sponsored by Google, IBM, Red Hat, and the ODF Alliance (which of course is closely tied to Sun because ODF–the Open Document Format–is Sun’s document format standard).”

    As for your comment: “I like the “Les Deux Maggot” reference but can only guess as to what he really knows about it,” I actually prefer the place around the corner from the Hotel Saint Germain des Pres, which is kitty corner across the plaza from the Maggot and has an equally good view of the action. But most people do not know of it so they pay twice as much for their cognacs in the Maggot. Unlike you I write about things I know about and I contact people before I write to make sure I get the facts straight.

    — Dennis Byron

  • Alan Lord says:

    Hello Mr Byron,

    Thanks for your comments. You are of course entitled to hold your own opinion; as indeed am I.

    Try looking around the web – you will find many similar views regarding your original piece, especially of the drivel about fascist terrorists.

  • Alan Bell says:

    Did you try emailing the anonymous enquiries email address? Who do you think you might have got a reply from if you did? If you want to know when people write followup articles in reaction to on your blog posts with fair use excerpts, correct attribution and a link back to you then you might like to enable trackbacks. They happen automatically. Of course you might want to read the 36 comments on your original piece.

  • […] Linux created by IBM, HP. Remember this? Another anti-Microsoft (MSFT) front group has emerged in favour of “free and open standards,” […]

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