Open Malaysia

APDIP (Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme) of the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) has just published their e-Note 18 on Standards for Electronic Documents.

Description:

This APDIP e-Note provides a brief introduction to the history of document standards, explores the different standards for electronic documents and details the development of OpenDocument Format for Office Applications (ODF). It also looks at how governments worldwide have started to adopt ODF in public administration. This APDIP e-Note provides a brief introduction to the history of document standards, explores the different standards for electronic documents and details the development of OpenDocument Format for Office Applications (ODF). It also looks at how governments worldwide have started to adopt ODF in public administration.

Office productivity software is extensively used to create electronic documents, spreadsheets and presentation files. These documents are widely shared within and across government agencies, commercial industries, educational institutions, and across countries, cultures and time zones. With millions of users of office productivity software, computer literacy is now equated by many to literacy in operating a word processor, spreadsheet or presentation application.

The office productivity software industry has had a tumultuous history in the last two decades, much due to harsh competitions. In order to ‘lock’ users to their software by making it difficult for end users to easily read, edit and save their documents in other office productivity software, corporations have developed electronic document formats that are closed, proprietary and lacked adequate documentation.

The closed nature of the documents have resulted in problems of electronic archeology: documents created by users 10 years ago or less cannot be opened with 100 percent fidelity in modern office software.

In response, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) started its work in 2002 to define an open standard for office documents (the ODF) to ensure interoperability between different office productivity software.

Governments and administrative bodies have been quick to recognize the merits of ODF and have started to integrate ODF as national policies for document use and exchange. This APDIP e-Note provide some examples from Australia to the US.

Other open standards discussed in this APDIP e-Note include the Microsoft-released Office Open XML and Adobe Systems’ Portable Document Format.