Slashdot Mirror
OpenDocument Foundation Closes
Munchkinguy writes "First, they dropped support for their namesake OpenDocument Format and declared a switch to the W3C's 'Compound Document Format.' Then, W3C's Chris Lilley clarified that CDF 'was not created to be, and isn't suitable for use as, an office format.' Now, the Foundation has mysteriously closed up shop, leaving the following message: 'The OpenDocument Foundation, Inc. is closed. We sincerely wish our friends and associates in the OpenDocument Community all the best and much success going forward. Good-bye and good luck.'"
I should know better than to feed the trolls but you do know these guys are not responsible for Open Document and have no official status. They were more or less a fan club. Redmond is the most likely culprit in this case so the addage NEVER... NEVER trust Redmond would be appropriate. This isn't even substantial news to the open source world and won't impact anything in it.
To elaborate, the format was actually put forth by OASIS (which, the entire British parliament should agree is the best band ever), but that's just a little piece of what they do.
The open document fellowship are the community supporters (i.e., the ODF volunteer organization), while the ODF Alliance are the industry supporters. What did the Open Document Foundation do? Muddy the waters.
They're the Ross Perot of open document foundations - making people think that if they listen to them, that they'll get the real skinny because of their seeming-official status. Good to see 'em go.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
The "Open Document Foundation" is and was never a crucial part of anything. The Open Document Format was developed by OASIS - see http://docs.oasis-open.org/office/v1.1/OS/OpenDocument-v1.1-html/OpenDocument-v1.1.html/.
because it is NOT this ODF (the ISO standard (almost?), by OASIS) everyone knows about. Just some stupid group of people with same name.
#
#\ @ ? Colonize Mars
#
No it wasn't, but, it did dilute the acronym for the format and their actions did manage to fuel the FUD-fire. http://hackfud.net/2007/11/06/now-its-open-document-formats-turn-for-the-fudmeisters/ Has a good summary of that plus links to further informative pages and information related to those chaps.