[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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