The Importance of Open Document Formats

This article, while very short, begins to underscore the importance of open document formats.  Without them, your data is locked in and you are beholden to a third-party to get at it.  It should be obvious why this is "a bad thing".  Especially for governments and the public sector, who should all be looking really closely at moving toward all data they have being in a format that they can ensure will always be accessible (ie. an open format).
--jeremy