Open Malaysia

Note: This blog post was powered in most part by Google Translate and as such, there may be some inaccuracies in the translation from German to English. Comments correcting mistranslation or providing more accurate translations would be most appreciated.

The German Federal Government Co-ordination and Advisory Agency (KBSt) has released a new version of its Standards and Architecture for e-Government Applications, SAGA 4.0. This is what the introduction says:

The document describes standards, technologies and methods for the use of information technology in federal agencies and makes recommendations, in particular the development and maintenance of e-government services in public administration. SAGA is valid for five years.

With the standards and architectures for E-Government Applications (SAGA), the Confederation promotes interoperability, platform independence and investment security of IT applications. The SAGA referenced standards thus form a basis for the smooth flow of data in the German e-government - an important prerequisite for a modern and service management...

Among the changes within the existing subjects are the inclusion of open document format, Office Open XML "(OOXML) and the classification of the" Open Document Format (ODF) as "recommended" standard for exchanging editable text documents. The standard for long-term archiving PDF/A-1 was later classified and is now applying "recommended".

The SAGA 4.0 document itself (PDF, 2.4 MB) states on page 114 that the Open Document Format (ODF) version 1.0 is a "Recommended" standard:

OpenDocument  was created by OASIS as an XML-based document format for text, spreadsheets, presentations and other office documents. Document contents and information on its layout are separated and thus be independently processed. It can be used to exchange complex documents used for further processing. In November 2006, OpenDocument v1.0 under the name of ISO/IEC 26300:2006 was published as a standard. OpenDocument is used by the OpenOffice package of OpenOffice.org

On the very same page, Microsoft OOXML was stated as a standard "Under Observation":

Office Open XML was approved by ECMA in December 2007 [sic] as an XML-based document format for text, spreadsheets, presentations and other office documents. It can be used to exchange complex documents used for further processing.

And it continues with stating PDF 1.4 as a mandatory standard (PDF 1.5 is a recommended standard, PDF 1.6 is a standard under observation).

What are "Recommended" standards, "Mandatory" standards and standards "Under Observation"? Page 20 and page 21 explain the designations in full:

Recommended standards:

Standards are recommended if it is used in practice, but not appropriate as a mandatory standard or if they don't meet all the goals and objectives of SAGA. Recommended standards must, however, meet the minimum requirement of openness and fulfill investment safety. Competing recommended standards can coexist, if the applications differ significantly. In such cases, for each application, the most appropriate standard should apply.

Mandatory standards:

Standards are mandatory, if they are established in the market and meet the goals of SAGA. Mandatory standards are a priority for consideriation and application. Competing standards can coexist as mandatory standards if the application priorities differ significantly. In such cases, for the respective application should use the appropriate standard. If compulsory and recommended or are under observation standards are coexisting, the latter is only used in exceptional cases.

A mandatory classification does not mean that the standard in each e-government application only. Only if the requirements of the application, the use of standard associated with the technology or functionality necessary or useful, should the current mandatory standard can be used.

Standards Under Observation:

Standards are under observation if they are being developed, are in the process of being finalized and fulfill the minimum requirements of openness. However, these standards are not yet widely used in practice or have not met all the objectives of SAGA.