Tiedoksi:
FSFE:n puheenjohtajan Karstenin analyysi eilisestä uutisesta. Paljon (ehkä liikaa) faktaa luettavaksi mutta lopussa johtopäätös:
"This is exactly the right way to go about such complex decisions. The European Commission and other public administrations around Europe should take note."
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Karsten Gerloff gerloff@fsfeurope.org Date: 2014-01-30 Subject: UK picks Open Document Format for all government files • The Register
Hi,
a very nice announcement out of the UK yesterday:
http://m.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/30/uk_picks_open_document_format_for_all_...
The UK Government has decided that Open Document Format, the OpenOffice-derived file format, is the best choice for all government documents.
The Cabinet Office's Standards Hub explained its thinking on the matter and published the recommendation this week, using the following language:
“When dealing with citizens, information should be digital by default and therefore should be published online. Browser-based editing is the preferred option for collaborating on published government information. HTML (4.01 or higher e.g. HTML5) is therefore the default format for browser-based editable text. Other document formats specified in this proposal - ODF 1.1 (or higher e.g. ODF 1.2), plain text (TXT) or comma separated values (CSV) - should be provided in addition. ODF includes filename extensions such as .odt for text, .ods for spreadsheets and .odp for presentations.”
[...]
The relevant official page is
http://standards.data.gov.uk/proposal/sharing-collaborating-government-docum...
This is a proposal, which is open for public comment until Feb 26. We'll submit a statement.
What I like best about this announcement is that it's not just a bureaucratic decision made by someone, somewhere, without regard to practical realities. This is actually based on a lot of research that the UK's Government Digital Services has done with the very people who will be affected by this decision.
This blog post by the leader of that research exercise
https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2014/01/29/government-documents-understanding-what-u...
gives some impression of the length that GDS has gone to to make sure their recommendations are relevant and practical:
As part of our parallel discovery project we have:
- analysed feedback on using government documents that we received through GOV.UK customer support and transformation projects
- interviewed people in government to understand what they use electronic documents for, how they work, and who they share with
- carried out a survey of 650 citizens and businesses, to ask them about their experience when using documents produced by the government
This is exactly the right way to go about such complex decisions. The European Commission and other public administrations around Europe should take note.
Best regards, Karsten -- Karsten Gerloff [ ] gerloff@fsfeurope.org Free Software Foundation Europe [ ][ ][ ] [http://fsfe.org] President | | +49 176 9690 4298 Support software freedom! [http://fsfe.org/support]
Free Software Foundation Europe e.V. is a German Verein registered at the Registergericht Hamburg (VR 17030).