[LINK] AGIMO re-opens comments for COE

[Kim Holburn]

Begin forwarded message:
Date: 2011 January 21,Fri 4:39:27 PM AEDT
> To: CLUG <linux at lists.samba.org>
> Subject: [clug] Tweet by @sherro58 FAS
> 
> A tweet from John Sherridan, FAS AGIMO:
> http://au.linkedin.com/pub/john-sheridan/4/a35/899
> 
> "You asked for it - #AGIMO seeks comments for future Common OE
> versions http://bit.ly/gcNfZY #gov2au #OOXML"
> http://twitter.com/sherro58/status/28310468300906497
> 
> Seems like there might be some wriggle room?

http://agimo.govspace.gov.au/2011/01/21/back-to-the-future-another-chance-to-influence-coe-development/#more-1724
> Back to the Future: Another chance to influence COE development
> 
> By John Sheridan - AGIMO on 21 Jan 2011 3:35pm, 34 comments
> Procurement
> As Kayelle noted earlier in the week, AGIMO’s Common Operating Environment (COE) policy is now finalised and available on the web.  Since it was released, there has been a range of discussions about aspects of the policy in posts and comments on several online news sites (e.g. here, here, here and here). Much has also been said on Twitter – mainly at #AGIMO. Support has varied – there have been positive views and negative comments. Several people suggested we hadn’t been open about this – despite blog posts (here and here) and various presentations. As Andrea DiMaio from Gartner has pointed out, we really tried hard to get public comment. Since people seem to have more to say, we have reopened the discussion in the hope that constructive criticism will inform future versions of the policy.
> 
> Before reading new comments, please take a moment to view the background on the document standard issue.
> 
> What standard does AGIMO support?
> 
> The intent of the policy is to mandate a file format that fully supports the primary office productivity suites used within government agencies. Based on a survey conducted in 2010, a large number of agencies (representing the majority of the desktop fleet) have signalled their intention to move to either Office 2007 or 2010 as part of their next upgrade.
> 
> To support the capability of these office productivity suites, the Office Open XML format, based on the ECMA-376 1st edition, was chosen to provide the greatest level of compatibility. The Office 2007 format is based on the ECMA-376 1st edition and the Office 2010 default format is based on the ISO/IEC 29500 “transitional” standard. The ISO/IEC 29500 “transitional” standard is very close (in practical terms) to ECMA-376 first edition. Because of the similarity between the standards, files created in Office 2010 can be used without significant issues in Office 2007.
> 
> Other formats were considered, but after careful consideration and discussion with the agencies it was agreed that many existing documents would not be properly converted by these other formats.
> 
> Importantly the policy does not exclude other formats from being used but seeks to ensure that at a minimum one common format can be accessed on all Australian Government computers.
> 
> The following table shows a range of office suites and their compatibility with the various standards:



-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
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