ODF Alliance Newsletter 9 April 2007

I missed posting the previous newsletter (9 March 2007) but it can be found at this link. Below is the latest newsletter. Plenty of news! Not just on ODF, but also Microsoft OOXML and even Microsoft Vista:

9 April 2007

You can download a free PDF version of the newsletter: http://www.odfalliance.org/mail_list.php. Please feel free to forward to whom it may be of interest.

ODF Alliance Chapter Launched in Brazil

A local ODF Alliance chapter was officially launched in Brazil, which became the first government in South America to recommend ODF in November 2006. ODF Alliance Brasil will be headed by Jomar Silva and will focus its efforts on improving public access to government documents. The National Institute of Technology and Computer Science, the Ministry of Defense and the Government of the State of Paraná are members of the ODF Alliance from the public sector. Brazil becomes the fourth country to have launched a local chapter. India, Malaysia, and Poland started local chapters in 2006.

ODF Alliance Brasil Release - http://www.odfalliance.org/press/ReleaseBrazilODFLaunch20070329_port.pdf

OOXML Moves To 5-Month Ballot Period In ISO/IEC Process

The ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC1) secretariat has decided to allow Microsoft's Office OpenXML (OOXML) to proceed to the 5-month ballot period. Twenty national standards bodies had reported OOXML "contradictions" with other ISO/IEC standards during the initial 30-day contradictions period, with many objecting to the amount of time with which to review a 6000 page specification. At least two-thirds of the votes of the 30 so-called "P" voting members are needed for approval during the 5-month ballot period, which ends 2 September 2007. Not more than one-quarter of the total number of votes cast may be negative.

EU Conclusions From Open Document Formats Exchange Workshop

On 28 February, the IDABC unit of the European Commission, in conjunction with the German Presidency, held a one day workshop in Berlin on Open Document Exchange Formats. Some 100 attendees, including representatives from 21 member states and industry were able to listen to presentations from both public administrations and the main industry stakeholders. The member states then met in private and reached a set of conclusions which were then discussed and presented the next day at the main Advancing eGovernment Conference, and formed part of the formal declaration. There was a strong consensus among the EU Member State administrations on the need to use an open document exchange format (ODEF), on "openness" being an essential criteria of ODEF, and the need to avoid competing standards.

Open Forum Europe - http://www.openforumeurope.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=937&Itemid=1

UNESCO Report Recommends ODF

The report, "Ethical Implications of Emerging Technologies: A Survey," produced by the Geneva Net Dialogue, an open, international association whose mission is to lend its support to the operation of human rights in the information society, recommends that UNESCO support open standards and protocols that are generated through democratic processes not dominated by large corporations. The use of OpenDocument Format and other open formats is also encouraged as they help mitigate lock-in to certain technologies.

UNESCO Report - http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001499/149992E.pdf

German City of Freiburg Moving to ODF

While many nations are moving to ODF, several countries organized along more federalist lines are moving region-by-region or municipality-by-municipality. The German City of Freiburg will deploy OpenOffice.org on 2,000 desktops and expects to save Euro 0.5m (USD 0.7m) over the next two years compared to a migration to Microsoft Office 2007. Freiburg will also adopt ODF in order to become vendor and product independent.

News-Ticker.org - http://www.news-ticker.org/pm.php?news_id=4855707&aktion=nf

ODF Monograph Now Available in Spanish and English

UPGRADE, the European Journal for the Informatics Professional, has released a free monograph about ODF in its December issue (VII/6 issue). Additionally, a Spanish version of the monograph has been published by the oldest IT Spanish magazine (Novática) and the Asociación de Técnicos de Informática (ATI), and will soon be available online. The monograph, which was guest edited by Jesús Tramullas-Saz, Piedad Garrido-Picazo and Marco Fioretti, is an invaluable resource for those wishing to learn more about the design and implementation of ODF worldwide.

ODF Monograph [eng] - http://www.upgrade-cepis.org/issues/2006/6/upgrade-vol-VII-6.html#other-langs
Upgrade (December 2006 full issue) [eng] - http://www.upgrade-cepis.org/issues/2006/6/upgrade-vol-VII-6.html

ODF (ISO/IEC 26300) Now Freely Available

You no longer need to pay 342 Swiss Francs to download an official copy:
http://standards.iso.org/ittf/PubliclyAvailableStandards/

ODF Validator Now Available

The OpenDocument Fellowship has launched an ODF validator, a free service that checks ODF files for conformance with the ODF specification. The ODF validator was written by Alex Hudson as part of the Fellowship's ODF Tools project.

ODF Validator - http://opendocumentfellowship.org/validator
OpenDocument Fellowship Tools Project - http://opendocumentfellowship.org/projects/odftools

Barcelona Chosen To Host Annual OpenOffice.org Conference

Barcelona is the venue for the OpenOffice.org community's annual conference, OOoCon 2007. The conference, which takes place in September 19-21, promises to feature presentations on the technology and business of OpenOffice.org, including ODF, which OpenOffice uses as its default format. Last year's conference in Lyon, France, attracted record participation.

OOoCon 2007 - http://marketing.openoffice.org/ooocon2007/

New Applications Support for ODF

1) OpenOffice.org 2.2 was released incorporating several enhancements to the Calc spreadsheet and Base, the database component - http://www.openoffice.org/
2) NeoOffice, a free office suite for Mac OS X based on OpenOffice.org, announced the release of NeoOffice 1.1 - http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/donate.php
3) Data Import for PostgreSQL v3.0 can import data from MS Access, DBF, TXT, and CSV files as well as MS Excel 97-2007, MS Word 2007, HTML, Generic XML, and ODF (Text and Spreadsheet) files - http://news.thomasnet.com/fullstory/513217/2585

New Alliance Members

Knowbility.org (USA); Qualiom Sistemas Computacionais (Brazil); JSK Consultoria e Treinamento (Brazil); ULX Kft. (Hungary); Mithrandir Kft (Hungary); Vizi Sverige AB (Sweden); Management Development Institute (India); Matthews Computational Systems (USA); Individuelle Internet Loesungen (Germany); The GravityZoo Company (Netherlands).

ODF In the News

Q&A: Former Mass. CIO feels 'bittersweet pride' after battles with Microsoft, legislature
By Carol Sliwa, Computer World, March 11, 2007
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyId=18&articleId=9012760&intsrc=hm_topic

UK Conservative Party Pro Open Source
Posted under Open Source on March 9, 2007
http://blog.eucap.com/open-source/uk_conservative_party_pro_open.html

OpenDocument (ODF) Enhances XML Accessibility
By Cate O'Malley, CMS Newswire, Published: Mar 9. 2007
http://www.cmswire.com/cms/document-management/opendocument-odf-enhances-xml-accessibility-001107.php

The D Daily (Korea): The MIC, pushing for ODF, MS office might be hurt
http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2007/03/korea_ministry_.html

Microsoft Hit By U.S. DOT Ban On Windows Vista, Explorer 7, and Office 2007
By Paul McDougall, InformationWeek, March 2, 2007 12:00 PM
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=CPID0SY4ST0CIQSNDLRCKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleID=197700789

Why the Office Format Wars are Not Over
By Glyn Moody on Wed, 2007-03-14 09:39.
http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1000197

MIGRATION: 3 Steps to Leaving Windows & Office
PlexNex - the Complexion Connexion
http://fussnotes.typepad.com/plexnex/2007/03/migration_3_ste.html

Microsoft Suffers Latest Blow As NIST Bans Windows Vista
By Paul McDougall, InformationWeek, March 12, 2007 04:00 PM
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=198000229

FAA May Ditch Microsoft's Windows Vista And Office For Google And Linux Combo
By Paul McDougall, InformationWeek, March 6, 2007 11:00 AM
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197800480

Word Procesor Review
DonationCoder.com
http://www.donationcoder.com/Reviews/Archive/WordProcs/

IBM Announces Public Beta for Lotus Notes and Domino 8
WebWire, 3/16/2007 7:28:53 AM
http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=29596

Q&A: Calif. CIO Steers Clear of Ideology on File Formats
By Carol Sliwa, March 19, 2007 (Computerworld)
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=desktop_applications&articleId=286446&taxonomyId=86&intsrc=kc_feat

Oregon Is The Latest State To Consider Adopting ODF Office Standard
By W. David Gardner, InformationWeek, March 28, 2007 10:50 AM
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=198700703

Standards NZ disappointed at Open XML fast-track
ComputerWorld, By David Watson Auckland, Wednesday, 28 March, 2007
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/5CB3B2EB34E54949CC2572A7001114D2

Microsoft criticized for Open XML petition
By David Meyer, CNET News.com, April 5, 2007, 8:06 AM PDT
http://news.com.com/Microsoft+criticized+for+Open+XML+petition/2100-7344_3-6173625.html

Marino Marcich
ODF Alliance
1090 Vermont Avenue, NW 6th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
mmarcich@odfalliance.org
www.odfalliance.org