Parliment House Webcasting - limited access through proprietary formats

[Mark Purcell]

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Dear Parliament House Webcast manager,

I am writing to express my concern in the limits to access you have placed on 
the Parliament house web casts by choosing to only provide these broadcasts 
in Microsoft Windows Media Player format. As detailed at 
http://www.aph.gov.au/live/webcast2.asp.

Microsoft Windows Media Player format is a proprietary media format which can 
only be decoded by indivuals who have purchased and licensed the proprietary 
Microsoft Windows operating system and then downloaded the 'free' media 
player component of Microsoft Windows.

I and many other have chosen open software and open standards for the 
provision of a comprehensive computing operating system, without being tied 
to proprietary standards and formats.  Indeed the governments of South 
Africa, United Kingdom and Germany are also investigating the value of open 
software and open standards in Government. 
http://www.naci.org.za/docs/opensource.pdf

For the Parliament house webcasts in question, other webcasting services 
choose to provide both Windows Media Player and RealPlayer format, for which 
players are freely available for non-Microsoft platforms.

I hope that you will receive these comments positively as an attempt to 
further expand the availability of your information.

Mark Purcell
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