The government and local schools should not save their documents in the .doc format by default on their Web sites.
This is because not everyone uses Microsoft Office, and public information should be easily accessible and available for any Hong Kong citizen at no cost.
Unfortunately, however, it appears that almost all the documents stored on the Web sites of government departments are in .doc form.
Since Windows is not cheap and not everyone can afford it, the government is indirectly encouraging piracy.
Moreover, does the government endorse Microsoft as its preferred supplier of software for office applications?
Since no other software can legally read Microsoft Word's proprietary data format, the public has no choice but to use Microsoft Office.
The government, in effect, is tacitly encouraging people to use Microsoft's products, thereby tilting the market in Microsoft's favour and weakening the development of the local software industry (at least in the area of office productivity software).
