All published federal documents should be posted to repositories in their original formats AND pdf formats at resolution levels that are legible to everyone.
To often documents are printed, then scanned, then posted and in the process critical information in tables and graphs becomes unreadable.
Also, tabular data becomes almost impossible to access once placed in pdf format. The original spreadsheet format and text formats should be available.
Additionally, the government should standardize on open source free formats and require these for all reports written for or by the government (e.g. the Open Source Open Office formats).
Any provider (free or commerical) can and should use these open formats.
Comments (2)
I would change the example from Open Source Open Office formats to ISO approved OpenDocument Format. It's about the format and not the vendor.
This is an unfortunate misuse of the Open Government Dialog, which is a great process. The first three paragraphs introduces a legitimate question about how to preserve the usefulness of government documents and the differt usefullness between an editable or revisable format and a fixed format.
The "Why is this Idea Important" summary maintains that useful thought.
Then the last two paragraphs tack on an agenda about open source and open formats. Question 42 is a straightforward suggestion. This appears like a cheap attempt to show support for a hidden agenda.