Massachusetts IT Chief Quits, Cites Lack Of IT FundsMassachusetts IT Chief Quits, Cites Lack Of IT Funds

The chief information officer of Massachusetts' Information Technology Division (ITD) resigned earlier this week, citing a lack of funding for the state's IT programs.

Louis Gutierrez had been a champion of open standards and was a strong supporter of the state's plan to implement the OpenDocument format (ODF) and his resignation could slow the ODF rollout, which is scheduled to go live in January.

Gutierrez had been sounding the alarm over the lack of funding since August when the state's legislature failed to approve a bond issue that would provide financing for various IT programs including the move to ODF.

"IT innovation in Massachusetts state government ran out of steam in August, when the legislature closed its formal session without action on the IT and facilities bond," Gutierrez wrote in his letter of resignation. "I am presiding over the dismantling of an IT investment program -- over a decade in the evolution -- that the legislative leadership appears unwilling to salvage at this time."

Gutierrez' resignation is the second in less than a year for the ITD, whose previous chief, Peter Quinn, resigned the post last December. Quinn also championed the state's use of the ODF standard, which had been resisted by Microsoft.

In spite of the turnover at ITD, a spokesman for Gov. Mitt Romney said the state remains committed to implementing the ODF standard on time.

"It's still difficult to predict what will happen," said Andy Updegrove, a Boston lawyer who is a standards specialist. "As the guy at the top, Gutierrez puts things in motion, but (ODF) is implemented at lower levels."

In his blog, Updegrove wrote that the shortage of funds isn't likely to impact ODF severely. "Given that all office software suites that implement ODF are either free, or significantly cheaper than Microsoft Office, a budget shortfall would presumably make conversion to ODF more attractive, and perhaps even necessary, when compared to the costs of upgrading to Vista," he said, according to the blog.

Also agreeing that Gutierrez' resignation won't likely have a major impact on ODF's deployment in state agencies is IBM standards and open source vice president Bob Sutor. "The ODF work has been driven by the team there," Sutor said in his blog. "So this is a hiccup as far as interacting with the leader of that team, but I don't think it will affect the ultimate success of ODF and the open standards path we are all on now."