ODF Alliance Congratulates Malaysia...

ODF Alliance just issued a press release: ODF Alliance Congratulates Malaysia on Preliminary Designation of OpenDocument Format as Malaysian Standard - Also Welcomes Bristol City Council (U.K) as Membership Grows to nearly 280 Members in 43 Countries

Excerpt from the press release:

Washington, DC, July 27, 2006 -The OpenDocument Format Alliance (ODF Alliance), a broad cross-section of organizations, academia and industry dedicated to improving access to electronic government documents, today applauded Malaysia's preliminary decision to make ODF an official Malaysian standard.

This past week, Malaysia's standards body voted to propose ODF as a country standard, following the recognition in May by the International Organization For Standardization (ISO) of ODF as an international standard. After a public comment period that ends in October, Malaysia's Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation is expected to formally endorse ODF by year's end, recommending the format for use by the public sector.

“The news from Malaysia continues momentum towards ODF that we are seeing around the globe," said Marino Marcich, Executive Director of the ODF Alliance. "For instance, France and Belgium have recently identified ODF as the kind of open format on which they would standardize. Denmark and Norway have recently indicated that they are moving toward using software based on open standards, and India is also piloting deployments of ODF software within governmental departments.”

Push on, Malaysia!