Mar
24
Posted on 24-03-2008
Filed Under (Interoperability, Open Document Format, OpenOffice.org) by italovignoli on 24-03-2008

I have tried to follow the discussion about the standardization of the Microsoft Office Open XML document format, or ECMA-376:2006 or ISO/IEC DIS 29500. The fast track process is in the final stage, with the national bodies voting on the approval of the modified specs which came out of the Ballot Resolution Meeting in Geneva.

I have been reading many blogs, which seem to be the preferred communication tool for both parties: those for the approval and those against the approval. Using a handy feature of Google Reader, I have tried to collect all the posts which have been written on the subject since the start of the BRM.

If I were a “normal” user trying to understand if there was something positive for me in the standardization process, I would have probably given up after a few days. I think that it is almost impossible to get a clear picture of what has happened, what is happening and what will happen. Communications, unfortunately, does not seem to be the primary concern of all the people that have been writing on this subject.

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Mar
03
Posted on 03-03-2008
Filed Under (Interoperability, Open Document Format) by italovignoli on 03-03-2008

Matthew Aslett of The 451 Group comments about the Geneva BRM. He is probably confused as much as I am, but he reports a number of opinions (including those that I’ve mentioned in my previous post).

I point out Matthew’s last two paragraphs:

Admittedly I am quoting selectively, but you have to wonder whether a “standard” that has been through a process that divides opinion so much is worthy of the title, whatever the result. The most damning indictment, in my personal view, comes from Yoon Kit of the Malaysian delegation:

We eventually found out that if any changes affected current implementations it would certainly be rejected. This seriously compromised any elegant solutions, and it forced us to be mindful of the “existing corpus of documents” in the wild. I don’t believe that that should be our problem, but there was a large and vocal voting bloc which would oppose any changes to the spec which would “break” Ecma 376. […]

From my informal talks with Sam Ramji of Microsoft I’ve understood that the company has already started working at the code of Office 2007, in order to make the product more interoperable. This is confirmed by the following statement, which is included in the press release distributed on February 21 to support the conference call with Steve Ballmer, Ray Ozzie, Bob Muglia and Brad Smith (you know, they use Excel to sort the list alphabetically ;-), and the software includes a non standard “hierarchy filter”):

Enhancing Office 2007 to provide greater flexibility of document formats. To promote user choice among document formats, Microsoft will design new APIs for the Word, Excel and PowerPoint applications in Office 2007 to enable developers to plug in additional document formats and to enable users to set these formats as their default for saving documents.

As a logical consequence, once ECMA has started the standardization process for Microsoft OOXML it should have been clear that the process itself could have asked for substancial amendments to the document format, and that refusing or opposing such changes would have been simply not coherent with the process.

Therefore, I’m quite surprised for Yoon Kit statement, because - if completely true (the only problem I see is the language one, as writing in English when it’s not your mother tongue is a daily challenge) - it goes not only against the principles of the standardization process but also against any reason.

The fact that during the BRM there were substantial changes to the specifications seems to be confirmed by this short sentence from Microsoft James Matusow (which I find otherwise biased, and this is the reason why I decided to ignore his post before):

After 5 months of ongoing communications about the dispositions with NSBs around the world, the constructive, positive adoption of changes to the specification was the outcome of the BRM.

This sounds logical to me. And it sounds logical that Microsoft is going to implement the changes once they have been approved, although this doesn’t mean that OOXML - once all the changes have been implemented - it’s going to be an interoperable standard, as the changes - many of them - are just one of the necessary steps in the right direction.

I’m puzzled and confused… Any help?

UPDATE: ECMA has issued a press release about the Ballot Resolution Meeting, with a couple of paragraphs which clarify the outcome of the BRM:

The final DIS 29500 text includes updated dispositions to a number of key comments, such as multi-part standard; transitional vs. strict conformance classes; more strict date system in spreadsheets based on the ISO standard; flexible units of measurement and very significant advances in accessibility, internationalization (BiDi) and multi-platform support.

Several of the issues which will not be reflected into the final DIS text have been deferred to consideration during the maintenance phase, which, if the standard is approved would be managed by ISO/IEC JTC 1 with the active collaboration of Ecma International.

Although I understand that a huge effort has been put by all the participants in order to get to this stage, I think that this is a result that doesn’t allow the standardization of OOXML, as there are still several issues unresolved.

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Mar
03
Posted on 03-03-2008
Filed Under (Interoperability, Open Document Format) by italovignoli on 03-03-2008

I’ve tried to understand what has happened in Geneva during the Ballot Resolution Meeting, a very important step during the Fast Track process for the standardization of the Office Open XML document format.

I’ve gone through dozens of posts with the clear feeling that the report was biased, either in a sense or the other. Unfortunately, the voting process doesn’t help at all in confusedunderstanding, as the effects of abstention - for instance - can be different from the norm, as they may express a vote.

At the end, I’ve found only two posts which are worth reading, as they try to be balanced in their opinion, although they’ve been written by people against OOXML: Tim Bray (Canada) and Yoon Kit (Malaysia). They try to give a feeling of the work done by delegates during the BRM, and of the short time available to achieve the huge task of going through over 1.000 comments.

They both underline their negative opinion on the Fast Track process in relation to a document format with a description of the size of OOXML, which is a whopping 6.000 pages (you can even find pictures of the printout).

I’ve decided to avoid linking the biased posts, which can be easily found Googling “BRM Geneva” or “BRM OOXML”. You can find the entire spectrum of marketing hype, from “it was an unbelievable success” to “it was a complete disaster”, and you can get a sense of the commercial interests behind document standards.

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Feb
28
Posted on 28-02-2008
Filed Under (Open Document Format) by italovignoli on 28-02-2008

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.

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Cras justo. Vivamus pulvinar convallis nisl. Cras sagittis orci sed mi. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Mauris nec massa. Integer metus. Nunc euismod pede vel lectus. Ut eget urna congue arcu vehicula placerat. Cras pulvinar. Quisque ut augue. Duis ullamcorper sollicitudin arcu.

Donec tincidunt semper ligula. Mauris ac pede vel neque vulputate euismod. Mauris scelerisque ipsum a massa. Morbi mollis, nulla non aliquet consectetuer, tellus nunc facilisis nulla, non faucibus metus erat vel magna. Phasellus pellentesque eros sit amet erat.

Phasellus aliquam orci. Duis varius neque condimentum sem. Quisque condimentum nibh vitae tellus. Proin ac enim eu urna ullamcorper suscipit. Curabitur gravida sem non magna. Morbi dignissim scelerisque enim. Nulla porta nibh ut felis. Mauris commodo lorem vel elit.

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Feb
27
Posted on 27-02-2008
Filed Under (Associazione PLIO, Open Document Format, OpenOffice.org) by italovignoli on 27-02-2008

I’ve had a long phone conversation with Sam Ramji today. It was plagued by some bandwidth problems on my side (next time I will have a dedicated PC for Skype) but it was definitely constructive for both of us: Microsoft and Associazione PLIO. We are both committed to start working about and around interoperability, maintaining our respective independence and therefore our different views on some issues.

During the call, Sam has pointed out that a very large percentage of OpenOffice.org users (close to 90%? maybe, although every Linux user and an increasing number of Mac users adopt it) are also Windows users (from the emails and phone calls that we receive on a daily basis, I would dare to say that all the Italians that use Vista have already switched to OpenOffice.org).

Therefore, interoperability is a key factor for Microsoft, because a malfunctioning OpenOffice.org on Windows would raise question marks about the operating system, and is a key factor for OpenOffice.org, because there are areas where performances can be improved with a better understanding of Windows.

Then there are document formats. During the recent press conference, Microsoft has stated the following:

To promote user choice among document formats, Microsoft will design new APIs for the Word, Excel and PowerPoint applications in Office 2007 to enable developers to plug in additional document formats and to enable users to set these formats as their default for saving documents.

Unfortunately, only a few people understand the implications of standard document formats for the user. During the last couple of weeks I have talked with many Italian journalists about this subject, and I have realized that their knowledge is still limited and sometimes even confused. We have a long education process in front of us.

Given this limited understanding, the chaos around standard formats has raised more than one eyebrow in those who have followed the discussion on the press. It’s time to stop being negative and start being positive, for the sake of the user.

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Feb
22
Posted on 22-02-2008
Filed Under (Associazione PLIO, News, Open Document Format, Open Source, OpenOffice.org) by italovignoli on 22-02-2008

Today, we have decided to follow yesterday’s Microsoft announcement with an open letter to the company. This is my translation into English of the text (unfortunately, some of the extra care put in each word gets lost, but the meaning is there).

Welcome, Microsoft.

Following yesterday’s announcement, we are ready to co-operate at the promotion of open formats in order to support this new endeavour in the area of office suites. We are ready to co-operate, but we will criticize you for every uncertain or false step.

Inside interoperability there isn’t any space left for tricks: interoperability means that you have chosen to be on the same side of the users.

We believe in your good faith more than the European Commission does, as they have told the world that this is the fourth time that Microsoft makes an announcement about interoperability, without any impact - until today - on the company strategy.

We sincerely hope that this time, for a number of reasons - including our proactive opposition to the fast track standardization of Office 2007 file formats, which will go on until all the necessary changes will be made, the chances that mere words are going to translate into facts are higher than in the past.

At the same time, we invite all the companies that support the ODF format together with us - and those that belong to the OpenOffice.org community: Sun, IBM, Novell & Red Flag - to work for a full interoperability, as the technical and legal obstacles are going to disappear soon.

Users should be able to exchange transparently Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org documents, in both directions.

The software industry, which is not based just in Redmond, must demonstrate a true commitment to make ODF a more widespread format.

If this will happen, users will win, and the market - i.e., all of us - will win.

Associazione PLIO (Italian National Linguistic Project OpenOffice.org)

We know that many inside the community have a different opinion. Of course, we have carefully evaluated the pros and the cons of such a statement, and are quite sure that this is the right attitude for this specific time in the history of computing.

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Feb
04
Posted on 04-02-2008
Filed Under (Open Document Format, OpenOffice.org) by italovignoli on 04-02-2008

Announcements

OpenOffice.org Community Innovation Program

"On 7 December 2007, Sun Microsystems Inc. announced a new million-dollar fund to foster innovation in six of the open-source projects it
sponsors and contributes to. We are pleased to report that OpenOffice.org was included. The contest, which we have titled the OpenOffice.org Community Innovation Program, commences tomorrow, 30 January, and we invite OpenOffice.org Community members to participate".

http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=announce&msgNo=350

OOoCon 2008 Call for Location - deadline extended

"Last month we set a deadline of January 31st for the receipt of proposals for hosting the OpenOffice.org Annual Conference 2008 - see http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=announce&msgNo=345. In response to a number of requests from organising teams, we have agreed to put back the deadline to midnight UTC February 10th. We will aim to open the community voting process a few days later, and announce the winning bid on March 1st".

http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=announce&msgNo=349

Fosdem 2008

"Fosdem 2008 (23-24 February, Brussels, Belgium) [0] is legendary for being a focused and exciting developer and contributor conference. This year, it will host a Developer Room (DevRoom) for OpenOffice.org from 23-24 Feb. (the weekend). The purpose of the Developer Room is to give developers and other contributors the space and time to present and conduct workshops on OpenOffice.org and related technologies. We will have this room for the weekend, from morning to evening. All interested are welcome to participate, and if you have a new integration, extensions, add-on or functionality, here is your chance: you are invited!".

http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=announce&msgNo=348

Success Stories

Sears starts selling $199 PC

"I just learned that the large retailer Sears just started selling $199 PC’s (after $100 mail-in rebate) which have Freespire pre-installed. As can be read on the Freespire homepage, this means that buyers of this PC will get access to the Sun StarOffice software. Since Freespire is Linspire’s free offering, I guess people have to pay in order to get StarOffice, but AFAIK Freespire also allows includes OpenOffice.org as a free option. This is yet another example of a major retailer selling low-cost PC’s with an ODF implementation pre-installed, or at least very closely attached. BTW, I just learned that the Eee PC will start selling in Germany on January 24. I’m anxious to get my hands on one of those little guys."

http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/sears_starts_to_sell_199

Indian organization saving money with OpenOffice.org

"Umashankar says that his office uses the Openoffice.org suite. This saves them close to Rs 12,000 on each desktop. We buy Intel dual core desktops with 19" TFT monitors for Rs 21,600 including the Linux OS. If we bought a proprietary office suite at Rs 12,000 for each desktop, the cost of commissioning infrastructure would go up to Rs 33,600 - a 55 percent increase", he says. "And when you have to refresh over 30,000 PCs, that’s a figure that can add up: to about Rs 17 crore. And that’s not all. These figures don’t take into account software upgrades for applications. By using the free Openoffice.org suite and a Linux OS, Elcot has bypassed yearly licensing fees for proprietary software".

http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=46692

Lenovo now also pre-installing Linux and OpenOffice.org, too

"I just read this article. Apparently Lenovo will pre-install Linux and OpenOffice.org, too. I wonder what high-profile hardware vendor comes next!?".

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/01/now_lenovo_load.html

Yet another cheap laptop with OpenOffice.org pre-installed

"Measuring 9" in length and 2 pounds in weight, the Everex CloudBook caters to users seeking the latest in mobile computing. With its 1.2GHz VIA C7-M ULV mobile processor, the laptop averages 5 hours of battery life on a 4-cell, lithium-ion battery. Unlike many of its competitors, the CloudBook also features 30GB of internal storage, digital video output (DVI-I), 4-in-1 card reader and 1.3MP webcam.

The CloudBook, model CE1200V, showcases the Linux based gOS operating system and familiar applications from Mozilla, Skype, Google, Facebook, Faqly and OpenOffice.org. Available January 25th, the computer will be available at Walmart.com for $399". The full announcement can be found here. I’m pretty sure that all these low-cost laptops will increase the global acceptance and market share
of open source desktop software like OpenOffice.org. As a consequence, the OpenDocument Format (ODF) will become increasingly popular, too.

http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/yet_another_cheap_laptop_with

Alternatives to Word and Windows at Israeli schools

"Even the unadventurous Israeli education system may soon discover that there is (computerized) life after Microsoft. The country’s schools will forgo Word and Windows in favor of parallel programs from Sun Microsystems. For the first time, the education system’s tenders committee has authorized cooperation in principle with Sun, in a move that could undermine Microsoft’s sovereignty in Israeli
classrooms".

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/939224.html

Usage of OpenOffice.org in Vietnam

"Weeks ago, the Ministry of Information and Communication recommended a list of open software solutions for use in State agencies and the education sector, comprising Open Office, Thunderbird, Firefox and Unikey. In the same gesture, the Office of the Vietnam Communist Party has announced it has replaced Microsoft Office by Open Office, and by the end of 2008, all 20,000 desktops at Party organs throughout Vietnam will be installed with Open Office. Other state agencies like the Department of Post and Telematics of Khanh Hoa Province, and three departments of Trade, Science and Technology, and Post and Telematics in HCMC are using Open Office on a trial basis. After this stage, HCMC agencies will expand the trial use of this open source software to three more departments and five districts in the first half of this year. An official of the HCMC Department of Post and Telematics says that the trial time shows that Open Office meets the requirements of the department".

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/tech/2008/01/762523/

Featured News

French Gendarmerie Adopts Ubuntu

"The gendarmerie’s 70,000 desktops currently use Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system. But these will progressively change over to the Linux  system distributed by Ubuntu, explained Colonel Nicolas Geraud, deputy director of the gendarmerie’s IT department. "We will introduce Linux every time we have to replace a desktop computer," he said, "so this year we expect to change 5,000-8,000 to Ubuntu and then 12,000-15,000 over the next four years so that every desktop uses the Linux operating system by 2013-2014". There are three reasons behind the move, Geraud said at the Solution Linux 2008 conference here. The first is to diversify suppliers and reduce the force’s reliance on one company, the second is to give the gendarmerie mastery of the operating system and the third is cost, he said".

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iU4Lq7tOR_WVOJLZ3IeRaIH03×6w

"Open source software has the ability to change the face of the Education Industry"

"A number of education institutions around the globe are looking towards open source software (OSS) as a means to gain more control over their solutions. From this a new report by independent market analyst Datamonitor predicts that spend on OSS (including maintenance and services) by the Education sector globally will reach $489.9 million by 2012, compared to $286.2 million today, providing sizeable opportunities for technology vendors".

http://www.datamonitor.com/home/press/article/?pid=57A80BE9-2C12-4166-9E23-EAB5BDE3A4FA&type=PressRelease

Advice for the Dutch public sector on Open Source

"The programme OSOSS informs and advises the Dutch public sector about the possibilities of open source software and stimulates the use of open source software in their information systems. The acronym OSOSS stands for “Open Source as an Option in your Software Strategy”. The OSOSS programme offers concrete support by providing information, knowledge and instruments that governmental bodies can use to start using open source software. The programme is run by the foundation for
e-government, ICTU, on request by the Ministries of the Interior and of Economic Affairs".

http://www.ososs.nl/about_ososs

Tips & Tricks

Alternative to Endnote (bibliography / citation)

"I just found out about Citavi. Citavi is an alternative to bibliography / citation tools like Endnote. Currently, Citavi is only available in German, but I guess the company is willing to add more languages based on user feedback. Thus, send your language and feature requests per email to Citavi! The interesting thing about Citavi is that there is a free entry version of Citavi which should be sufficient for the needs of most students, at least for the first years.

Have you heard of Zotero? Zotero is a Firefox extension for managing bibliographies that has a "cite as you write" extension for OOo. It works great, is cross-platform (Linux, OS X, and Windows all supported), and, most importantly, it has a Free software license.

http://www.zotero.org/

Zotero incorporates the open standard CSL citation language developed by the co-leader of the OOo bibliographic project team (OOoBib), Bruce D’Arcus, who recommends Zotero for everyday use:

http://www.mail-archive.com/dev@bibliographic.openoffice.org/msg00896.html"
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/alternative_to_endnote_bibliography

New Chart features in OpenOffice.org 2.4

"Now, it is possible to display the equation for a trend line (regression curve) next to it. The formula object can be moved around, formatted with a number format, font and graphical formatting.

Axes can be reversed, i.e. they point in a different than usual direction. In the example the y-axis points down from the top, instead of the usual orientation.

You can set individual number formats for the value displayed in a data label, as well as for the percentage".

http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/new_chart_features_in_openoffice

Improved picture cropping for Draw/Impress

" Of course there is an existing OpenOffice.org Issue for this (i3545) and in my daily work I get a lot of feedback from users who need and want this functionality, too. But unfortunately our developers are busy with more important features. So I decided to specify the needed redesign in my free time and I found a developer who saw the same need for this improvement. Christian Lippka from the Graphics team supported me and helped in his free time to get this working. Great job, thanks again! By now there is a quite good beta version implemented in CWS cropmaster2000 and there is not much work left to be done. So I hope soon this will make its way into the master build. And this is how it works: Selecting an inserted picture brings up the picture toolbar. Clicking on the cropping-button brings up 8 blue object-handles on the sides and angles of the picture. Moving the mouse cursor over these handles shows the cropping cursor. Now you can easily grab one of those and crop the picture by dragging these handles. It’s as simple as that and works in Draw and Impress".

http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/improved_picture_cropping_for_draw

Macros in Database Documents – Milestone 1

A while ago, I talked about macros in database documents, and that we had finished the work to re-factor various parts of OpenOffice.org’s application and scripting frameworks, so that we could start embarking upon implementing the real feature: Basic macros as well as JavaScript, BeanShell and Python scripts embedded in database documents. Nearly 3 months passed, and what I now want to advertise is the first milestone of this implementation: If you’re interested in, you can get your hands onto a version of OpenOffice.org which allows you to put your macros into your database document, and then run those macros from all sub components of the database: from within your forms, reports, the query, table and relation designer, and from within the table data view. Well, of course also from within the database document itself. The CWS which is dedicated to implementing the feature is called odbmacros2, and a snapshot of it is available to everybody for download, as Linux and as Windows version. For the details of what you can expect, please refer to the feature specification in our Wiki, and to the release notes in the download directory.

http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/macros_in_database_documents_milestone

ODF News

Arcor introducing web conferencing with ODF support

"According to this German article, Arcor is introducing a new phone and web conferencing solution which supports sharing ODF documents among participants".

http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/arcor_introducing_web_conferencing_with

Yet another reporting tool with ODF support

"Adding FastReport VCL to your application is a breeze. You need to put several necessary components on the visual form, then connect to needed data sources and make a report form. It’s as easy as working in Corel Draw. The end user who got FastReport VCL in an application can edit templates and available reports, convert reports to 15 formats (such as PDF, XLS, RTF, and ODF), and send reports by email directly from the application".

http://news.thomasnet.com/fullstory/538737

Book about ODF vs. OOXML discussions

"This article reminded me that I had not written about Andy Updegrove’s book project. I’m sure it will be an interesting story!".

http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/book_about_odf_vs_ooxml

ODF Alliance Publishes Response to Burton Group Report

"In case you had not noticed, the ODF Alliance just published a response to the recent Burton Group report".

http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/odf_alliance_publishes_response_to

Poll regarding ODF and OOXML

"Here is an interesting poll regarding ODF and OOXML. I’m curious about the results!".

http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/poll_regarding_odf_and_ooxml

Dispelling Myths Around ODF

"Yes, ODF 1.0 did not specify a formula language but allowed arbitrary formula languages instead. This was recognized as an interoperability issue and is thus being addressed by ODF 1.2. However, many ODF 1.0 based products from different vendors even don’t have an interoperability issue in the formula area because they are based on the same code base. It would have been fast and easy to define a formula language by simply documenting the formula language of one single application. However, ODF chose to specify formulas based on broad industry experience and best practices.

The formula language in ODF 1.2 is based on the following applications:

  • Microsoft Excel (many different versions)
  • OpenOffice.org / StarOffice
  • Lotus 1-2-3
  • Quattro Pro
  • Gnumeric
  • Koffice Kspread
  • WikiCalc
  • SheetToGo
  • Mathematica
  • Macsyma
  • Octave

And the key benefits of the ODF 1.2 formula language are:

  • Broad application coverage, incl. Microsoft Excel, Lotus 1-2-3 and OpenOffice.org
  • Innovative functions, e.g. XOR, BASE, SEC, etc.
  • Reuse of standards, e.g. ISO 8610 date and time representation
  • Support for supplier-unique namespaces, enables rapid, decentralized  innovation
  • Avoids bugs like the „1900 leap year bug“
  • No limitation to the number of rows and columns
  • No constraints on the user interface
  • Predefined function sets for different application areas

Thus, the ODF 1.2 formula language covers all key areas without sacrificing vendor independence and openess".

http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/dispelling_myths_around_odf

Becta supporting ODF

"I guess you have all read the news articles about the latest Becta report about Vista and Office 2007. It is great to see that Becta is supporting ODF. In case you haven’t seen the report yet, you can find it here".

http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/becta_supporting_odf

New ODF-XSLT Project

"Lone Wolves is happy to announce the ODF-XSLT project. The ODF-XSLT Document Generator is a library written in PHP 5 that brings the full power of XSLT to your OpenDocument files".

http://www.linuxpr.com/releases/10303.html

ODF making ‘amazing progress’

"Twelve countries and six regional governments have adopted "pro-ODF policies," according to the group, composed of companies and organisations that advocate for the format. The latest countries are the Netherlands and South Africa, which require government agencies to use the format. Also, more than 40 applications now support ODF and the Alliance’s membership ranks are set to rise above 500, according to the report".

http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/opensource/applications/news/index.cfm?newsid=6851

http://www.odfalliance.org

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Nov
10
Posted on 10-11-2007
Filed Under (Open Document Format) by italovignoli on 10-11-2007

Nelle ultime settimane, sono stati pubblicati alcuni articoli in cui The Open Document Foundation, Inc., un’organizzazione non profit di diritto statunitense nata per iniziativa di alcuni individui per promuovere delle modifiche allo standard ISO/IEC 26300 Open Document Format, viene confusa con la ODF Alliance, l’organizzazione che raccoglie tutti gli enti e le aziende (la lista completa è sul sito) che promuovono e sostengono l’adozione dello standard, e che collabora con l’OASIS all’evoluzione dello standard stesso.

Il fatto che The Open Document Foundation, Inc. abbia abbandonato l’ODF a favore di un altro formato sviluppato dal W3C non ha nessun tipo di impatto né sullo stato dell’ODF né sulla sua evoluzione: il formato standard ISO/IEC 26300 gode di eccellente salute ed è riconosciuto e adottato da un numero sempre più ampio di Paesi in tutti i continenti.

Tutte le informazioni relative all’ODF si trovano sul sito dell’ODF Alliance, mentre i più curiosi possono trovare qualche informazione in più su The Open Document Foundation, Inc. e alcuni dei suoi membri principali nei post di Rob Weir e Andy Updegrove.

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