Peter J. Quinn

Peter J. Quinn, an information technology (IT) worker, is the former Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a role he held from September 2002 through January 2006. He is noted for his controversial support for OpenDocument, a standard format for office documents (ISO/IEC 26300).

Quinn established a requirement that all state government documents be formatted in OpenDocument (effective 2007). This created intense opposition from Microsoft, whose Office software uses proprietary formats and does not recognize OpenDocument files. Although Quinn found support both within and outside government, he was opposed in his efforts; for example by Secretary of State William F. Galvin. Furthermore, the "Boston Globe" alleged that Quinn had misused public travel funds for trips to IT conferences, where he was supportive of open source software. [http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/11/26/romney_administration_reviewing_trips_made_by_technology_chief/] Quinn was cleared of wrongdoing, but he has resigned, stating the following:

:Over the last several months, we have been through some very difficult and tumultuous times. Many of these events have been very disruptive and harmful to my personal well being, my family and many of my closest friends. This is a burden I will no longer carry....I have become a lightning rod with regard to any IT initiative. Even the smallest initiatives are being mitigated or stopped by some of the most unlikely and often uninformed parties. The last thing I can let happen is my presence be the major contributing factor in marginalizing the good work of ITD and the entire IT community. [http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=2006012611055755 Peter Quinn Resigns]

Quinn is a graduate of Cambridge College

References