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ODF Alliance Continues to Grow and Build Out

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the stuff-worth-watching dept.

Andy Updegrove writes "As you may recall, a new organization called the ODF Alliance was formed on March 3 of this year to support the uptake of the OpenDocument Format (ODF) by governments. Yesterday, the ODF Alliance issued a press release announcing that it has more than tripled its membership to 138, has appointed a Managing Director with strong European experience (Marino Marcich), and is lobbying countries globally to vote for ODF in ISO. Overall, the picture is one of a growing organization that plans to be around for awhile, and particularly hopes to make its impact in Europe, from which a large number of its members have arrived, where governmental interest in ODF is highest, and risks to government CIOS therefore lowest."

3 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. Full list of members: by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Full list of members can be found here (and FAQ here)

    I note that Apple is not a member - I suggest all slashdotters write to Apple to support ODF & join this alliance. After all, Apple is no longer relying on MS for a browser - why rely on MS for an office suite?

    --
    There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
  2. Re:138....? by EraserMouseMan · · Score: 2, Informative

    I think it's 138 organizations, not individual people.

  3. Politicians != Government by Khammurabi · · Score: 2, Informative
    Once they are involved, what's to stop them from forcing design decisions upon the standards which make it easier for them to control and watch us?
    I think you're confusing government bureaucrats with politicians. Having worked for a government IT bureau, I can say that open documents would be welcomed and would have made our lives a hell of a lot easier. My team was charged with managing the 13 step process of bill creation and adoption for the legislature, which included no less than 6 legacy programming languages. The users and developers involved would have jumped at the chance of open document standards, since it removes the inherent half-life of proprietary formats.

    The problem is that the head of the bureau is chosen by a politician. While I can say from experience that our head was actively guided by his appointed party as to what software we were allowed to use, I can not comment on other bureau's machinations. So while the bureau grunts would have loved open document standards, the politicians who have the proprietary donors would probably stifle it.