In response to the Peruvian government considering mandating Open Source software in government technology (so as not to lock public documents up with a key that belongs to a third-party commercial entity), Microsoft has proposed a political platform they call "Software Choice." Bruce Perens explains Microsoft's scheme, which operates on many levels to not only discourage mandatory Open Source, but to lock out Open Source solutions by discouraging adoption of open standards in general. This much may be obvious, but Bruce notes that the Free Software community needs a similar political platform of its own, and proposes one which he calls Sincere Choice.

Open Source advocates intend to promote such a platform in California.

I don't have time to write this up properly, so I'll just say that if any of this sounds out of place, please read Peren's article closely. A government making a categorical mandate that appears to oppose most of the existing commercial software industry can seem like a strong, perhaps extreme, idea. The key words are "choice through interoperability."