EU: OASIS Open Document Format (ODF) approved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) eGovernment News – 04 May 2006 – EU Institutions – Infrastructure and Interoperability
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has formally voted for the OpenDocument Format (ODF) to become an international standard. ODF is now ISO/IEC 26300. The official documentation of the new standard is expected to be published in August 2006, after having gone through a publishing process for approval of the final text.
The OASIS ODF emerged from work done at the open source OpenOffice.org project. This work was later submitted to, and further developed at OASIS, where it was accepted as an official OASIS standard in May 2005. The six-months approval ballot for its adoption as a standard by ISO and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) ended on 1 May 2006.
The promotion of Open Document Format in public administrations is part of the IDA and IDABC activities in support of pan-European interoperability. The initiative includes studies on technical solutions as well as the “TAC Recommendations” from 2004 urging the industry to provide applications based on open formats that will allow electronic documents to be exchanged among authorities, and between authorities, citizens and business in a way that does not force the use of specific software products and ensures universal readability of the documents. The recommendations included the support of the OASIS standardisation efforts and asked industry to join the effort. They also pleaded for the submission to a public standardisation process in ISO.
In the meanwhile Microsoft, which took not part in the OASIS project, has introduced its Office Open XML specification into an ECMA standardisation process, also headed for consideration by ISO/IEC. Upon completion, it would be submitted to the same voting process as OASIS ODF.
Industry organisations such as the OpenDocument Format Alliance (ODF Alliance) congratulated the ISO for its sweeping approval of the OpenDocument Format. Marino Marcich, Executive Director of the ODF Alliance commented: "Approval of the ODF by ISO marks an important milestone in the effort to help governments solve the very real problem of finding a better way to preserve, access and control their documents now and in the future. There's no doubt that this broad vote of support will serve as a springboard for adoption and use of ODF around the world.”
Open Forum Europe (OFE), also an organisation supported by major players in the field “warmly welcomed” the announcement of the new standard. The organization “calls upon every European National Government to act now to formally adopt ODF as the recognised open standard for data formats and to take practical action to implement this.”
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