[LINK] RFC: Government mandates Open Document Format?

stephen at melbpc.org.au stephen at melbpc.org.au
Sun Jun 2 04:33:33 AEST 2013


"Views Sought on Annual Review of the Common Operating Environment Policy"

Request For Comments: <http://agimo.gov.au/2013/05/28/views-sought-on-
annual-review-of-the-common-operating-environment-policy/>

(Quote) "This review has focussed, in part, on a number of specific issues 
related to refining and clarifying the intent of the standards set out in 
the WofG COE Policy. 

In particular, I would like to highlight that further consideration has 
been given to the common document format to be supported by office 
productivity suites in use by Government agencies. The new draft now 
requires that office productivity suites must provide support for at least 
version 1.1 of the Open Document Format for Office Applications (ODF) as 
defined by ISO/IEC 26300:2006/Amd 1:2012. The related standard within the 
WofG COE Policy has been revised as follows: (/quote) (18 opinions so far)

(Also see:) Secretaries’ ICT Governance Board (SIGB)
<http://agimo.gov.au/governance-awards-data/sigb/>

Relevant Media Report:

"Australia Mulls Requiring OpenDocument Format Compatibility

By Jeremy Kirk (IDG News Service) 29th May, 2013.
<http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/463067/australia_mulls_requiring_opendocu
ment_format_compatibility/?ref=suggest_headline>


Australia's government may mandate that its agencies use software 
compatible with OpenDocument Format (ODF), an international file standard.

The country's government agencies mostly use Microsoft's Office software, 
but support for an open standard eliminates the "potential for a vendor 
ending support for specific format," wrote John Sheridan, Australia's chief 
technology officer.

If the draft proposal is approved, however, government agencies would not 
be required to work only with ODF documents, Sheridan wrote. The proposal 
is now open for comments and will eventually be taken up by the 
Secretaries' ICT Governance Board for approval.

If ODF support is mandated, Australia would follow a number of European 
countries that have required that government agencies be able to use open 
file standards.

ODF was approved as an international standard in May 2006. It is an XML 
(Extensible Markup Language) file format that sprang from OpenOffice, a 
free, open-source office application suite. The standard is open and can be 
implemented by any software vendor.

The standard is supported in Google Docs, Lotus Symphony, OpenOffice, 
StarOffice as well as later versions of Microsoft's Office.

Sheridan wrote that agencies shouldn't have a problem supporting it. He 
wrote that Microsoft Office has provided native support for ODF in Office 
versions beyond Office 2007 SP2.

The draft proposal is part of Australia's Whole-of-Government Common 
Operating Environment Policy, a project undertaken in 2009 that aims to 
standardize desktops, improve services and strengthen security.

The proposal calls for requiring that office suites support at least 
version 1.1 of ODF for office applications as defined by the International 
Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical 
Commission (IEC).

ODF is under continual development, Sheridan wrote. The latest 1.2 version, 
which is expected to eventually become an ISO/IEC standard, includes a 
spreadsheet specification that resolves compatibility issues between 
spreadsheet applications.

"This, coupled with Microsoft Office 2013's support for the format, means 
that formulae contained in spreadsheets can be reliably transferred between 
applications," Sheridan wrote.

Sensing a threat from ODF years ago, Microsoft created an open 
specification for productivity software called Office Open XML (OOXML), 
which was approved as an international standard in April 2008.

OOXML was opposed by many on grounds it was not needed, with critics 
contending ODF was a less complicated format and already an international 
standard. OOXML is the default file format for Microsoft Office.
--

Cheers,
Stephen
(Nb, apologies if my last post was overly negative regards salespeople
:)

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