Latest ODF News Letter-Sept 2008

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BRASILIA PROTOCOL SIGNED MOVING GOVERNMENT FROM ODF POLICY ADOPTION TO IMPLEMENTATION

The Brazilian governments transition from ODF policy adoption to implementation (ODF was identified as its recommended exchange format under its interoperability framework, or ePING, back in Nov 2006) has moved one step closer to reality with the signing of the so-called Brasilia ODF Protocol. Within 60 days of voluntarily signing the protocol, the entities, a whos who in the Brazilian government, pledge to have in place the necessary plans to receive, edit, and exchange office documents internally in ODF, make documents available to third parties (e.g., customers, public) in ODF, and exchange documents in ODF with the other entities signing the protocol. The Brazilian entities involved have a combined 500,000 desktops.

http://www.raffee.co.za/post/48537757/brasilia-protocol-translated 


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INTERNATIONAL GOVERNMENT CONFERENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA TO EXAMINE ODF IMPLEMENTATION

The 2nd International ODF User Workshop will be held October 9-10 in Pretoria, South Africa, bringing together government officials around the world that have already made the move to ODF or are actively considering how best to utilize an open format to preserve access to documents and increase choice of software. The theme of the workshop, which is hosted by South Africa's Department of Home Affairs in collaboration with the ODF Alliance, is "The Promise of ODF to the Practical Realities of Implementation." Building on the success of the first international workshop in Berlin in 2007 (http://www.odfworkshop.com/2007_berlin/index.html), the event provides an excellent opportunity for government CIOs, IT directors and policy leaders to both present and listen & learn from the real world experiences of their peers in governments throughout the world.

http://www.odfworkshop.org/


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ODF OLYMPIAD 2008 KICKS OFF IN SCHOOLS THROUGHOUT ASIA-PACIFIC REGION

Recognizing the role ODF can play in digital inclusion and educational development, the second annual ODF Olympiad kicked off September 22, with participating students from schools across India, Malaysia, Indonesia and throughout the region submitting presentations in ODF on specific topics that will then be evaluated by an jury based on specific criteria. The deadline for students to submit presentations is October 20. Winners from each country will then compete against each other for the Software Freedom Trophy. Sponsors of the event include IIT Delhi, IIM Ahmedabad, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Manufacturer's Association for Information Technology (MAIT), Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU), IOTA (Department of Information Technology, Government of West Bengal), Knowledge Commons, ODF Alliance, Sun, IBM and Red Hat.

http://www.odfolympiad.org/


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ODF AWARD NOMINATIONS NOW BEING ACCEPTED

Know someone in your community -- an individual, government official, NGO or other entity -- who has significantly advanced the cause of document freedom? The purpose of the award is to recognize the contribution of individuals or entities in promoting ODF adoption, the mission of the ODF Alliance. Nominate an individual or entity you work with closely or someone you have observed who stands out as a leader in the ODF community. In your nomination, please be sure to include: 1) name of person/entity; 2) email address; 3) brief description of this person or entitys actions; and 4) the reasons why you are nominating the person/entity. Nominations are to be sent to mmarcich at odfalliance dot org no later than October 8, 2008. Winners will be announced at upcoming national or local ODF events.

http://www.odfalliance.org/blog/index.php/site/odf_awards/


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ODF INTEROPERABILITY TECHNICAL COMMITTEE -- CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

The member review and comment period on the proposed charter for the OASIS Open Document Format Interoperability and Conformance (OIC) Technical Committee ended September 8. The next step is the announcement of the Call for Participation at which point individuals will be able to join the new committee. The first meeting is scheduled via teleconference to be held on Wednesday, 22 October 2008 at 1400 GMT (10am ET, 7am PT). The ODF Alliance strongly encourages its members to join. The new group intends to produce materials and host events that will help implementers measure and improve the interoperability of their ODF-supporting products and solutions.

http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=oic#overview


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CONSEGI 2008 DECLARATION: SIX NATIONS PROTEST DENIAL OF APPEALS AGAINST OOXML

Major IT agencies of six nations - Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Paraguay, South Africa and Venezuela - signed a declaration deploring the refusal of ISO and IEC to further review the appeals concerning Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML). The declaration, named after and signed at the conference in which it was delivered, cites the failure of ISO and IEC to properly address the concerns raised in the appeals of four national standards bodies - Brazil, India, South Africa, and Venezuela. The declaration concludes, "Whereas in the past it has been assumed that an ISO/IEC standard should automatically be considered for use within government, clearly this position no longer stands." OOXML is now expected to proceed to the publication phase in the ISO/IEC process.

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080901220545193


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ODF APPROVED AS SWEDISH NATIONAL STANDARD

The Swedish Standards Institute has officially approved ODF as a national standard (SS-ISO/IEC 26300:2008). Sweden now joins Brazil, Croatia, Italy, South Korea, and South Africa as countries whose national standards bodies have formal approved ODF.

http://www.sis.se/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabName=@DocType_1&Doc_ID=66727


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NEW OR IMPROVED ODF APPLICATIONS SUPPORT

SAP List Viewer component (also known as the ABAP List Viewer or ALV), used in many applications for displaying tabular data in a grid, exports to ODF spreadsheet files in addition to other formats. https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/10337 

Send to Google Docs Firefox extension adds an entry to your right-click menu to send ODF and other files directly to Google Docs, bypassing the need for any desktop software. http://www.labnol.org/software/open-web-documents-in-google-docs/4275/ 

TrollTech Lab's Qt 4.5, a cross-platform application development framework, will ship with an ODF writer. http://labs.trolltech.com/blogs/2008/08/06/opendocument-format/

IA Systems latest release of the Open Text eDOCS OOI (Open Office Integration) allows customers to save all ODF documents.
http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/software/2008/0808150641.asp?A=LIN&S=Ope%20Source&O=FPIN  

Odfpy version 0.8, which aims to be a complete API for OpenDocument in Python, is now available. http://forge.osor.eu/projects/odfpy/

ZoooS takes ODF-supporting OpenOffice.org to the Web.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9114124&intsrc=hm_list    

StorYBook, a free, open source story writing software for creative writers, novelists and authors, has added ODT export capability in Version 2.1.3. http://storybook.intertec.ch/?g_page=home&g_lang=en 


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NEW ALLIANCE MEMBERS

Please welcome the following new members: Dejahu Kft. (Hungary); Internetagentur - Plau IT (Germany); MSM Consulting (Germany); Edge Projects, Inc. (USA); MediaAnalys (Sweden); DIDACTICUS, s.r.o. (Czech Republic); The Handbook (UK); AllNutri (USA); MediVisas (UK); Fair Gift (UK), and Panoramafotografie (Germany).


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EVENTS CALENDAR

2nd International ODF User Workshop [9-10 Oct 2008 - Pretoria, South Africa] -- http://www.odfworkshop.org

Government Open Source Conference (GOSCON) 2008 [20-23 Oct 2008 - Portland, OR, USA] -- http://goscon.org/

Open Source World Conference 2008 [20-22 Oct 2008, Malaga, Spain] -- http://www.opensourceworldconference.com/ 

OpenOffice.org Conference (OOoCon 2008)[5-7 Nov 2008 - Beijing, China] -- http://marketing.openoffice.org/ooocon2008/

XML 2008 [8-10 Dec 2008 - Arlington, VA, USA] -- http://www.idealliance.org/xml2008/index.asp


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ODF IN THE NEWS

Nations Question ISO's Merit Following Dropped OOXML Appeals [Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service] --
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/150577/nations_question_isos_merit_following_dropped_ooxml_appeals.html  

MS-OOXML: A format without a future? [Richard Hillesley, IT Pro] -- http://www.itpro.co.uk/605142/ms-ooxml-a-format-without-a-future

Collaboration in the Virtual World [Denise Olson] -- http://moultriecreek.us/family/?p=1028 

When Will Indonesia Use ODF? [Willy Sudiarto Raharjo] -- http://willysr.blogspot.com/2008/08/when-will-indonesia-use-odf.html

Why Kindle Must Support ODF [Kindle Club] -- http://kindleebook.blogspot.com/2008/08/why-kindle-must-support-odf.html

Can the dog start wagging the tail? [MeetTheGeeks.org] -- http://forum.meetthegeeks.org/forum/showthread.php?t=4621 

Free software programs for back to school [Ray Saitz, The Peterborough Examiner] -- http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1172416 

Open Document Formats finally default for Yale Law School A2K Conference [nnennas blog] -- http://www.opensource.org/node/367

Why Are You Still Wasting Money on MS Office? [Jesse Kirdahy-Scalia, Open Media Boston] -- http://www.openmediaboston.org/node/323 

U.S. Needs a CTO, Says Kapor [Tod Newcombe, Government Teechnology] -- http://www.govtech.com/gt/articles/409844?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=GTEN%20-%20E-Newsletter_2008_9_12 


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Marino Marcich
ODF Alliance
1090 Vermont Ave., NW - Suite 600
Washington, DC 20005
(O) 202.789.4450
(F) 202.289.7097
mmarcich@odfalliance.org
www.odfalliance.org