Bonum Certa Men Certa

ODF Alliance Newsletter: Latvia and UK Join the ODF Bandwagon

Courtesy of Marino Marcich, ODF Alliance

Spread ODF






UNITED KINGDOM THE LATEST GOVERNMENT TO ENDORSE USE OF ODF



The United Kingdom has joined the growing ranks of governments that have now endorsed the use of ODF. Under the “Open Source, Open Standards and Re–Use: Government Action Plan” the UK government will specify requirements by reference to open standards and require compliance with open standards in solutions where feasible. The government indicated it will support the use of ODF. It will also work to ensure that government information is available in open formats, and it will make this a required standard for government websites.

http://www.cio.gov.uk/transformatio...




ODF-NEXT: SUBMIT YOUR IDEAS FOR THE NEXT-GENERATION ODF!



Do you want to have input on the next major version of ODF? The OASIS ODF Technical Committee invites you to help define the feature set of the next major revision of ODF following version 1.2, provisionally named “ODF-Next.” The ODF TC has created the ODF Requirements Subcommittee, chaired by Bob Jolliffe, to gather, categorize and prioritize proposals for ODF-Next, and to report back to the ODF TC with recommendations. The target date for this report is 1 May 2009. The work on ODF-Next will take place concurrently with the finalization of ODF 1.2 (see below).

http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/...




ODF 1.2 NOW A COMMITTEE DRAFT



The OASIS ODF Technical Committee has recently finalized the approval of technical proposals which will be included in ODF 1.2, the most significant revision to the ODF specification since its approval as an OASIS standard in May 2005. Once these proposals are integrated into the ODF 1.2 draft and remaining editorial tasks are completed, the draft specification will be sent on for Public Review (hopefully before the end of April) and then finally onto a ballot for approval as an OASIS Standard. ODF 1.2 includes support for extensible metadata, spreadsheet formula, and digital signatures, among other enhancements.

http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/documen...




NEED FUNDING FOR YOUR ODF PROJECT? CONTACT NLnet FOUNDATION



The NLnet Foundation (in Dutch: Stichting NLnet), a philanthropic organization, is seeking ODF projects in need of funding. The program is a joint initiative of the Dutch government, led by the minister for Foreign Trade Heemskerk and the State Secretary for the Interior and Kingdom Relations Anna Bijleveld-Schouten. The deadline for submitting proposals is 1 April 2009. The "Netherlands in Open Connection" action plan called on the Dutch central administrations to be able to accept and use ODF files as of April 2008 and all other government bodies in the Netherlands by January 2009.

http://www.nlnet.nl/news/2008/20080124-ca...




LATVIA APPROVES ODF AS NATIONAL STANDARD



Latvia's standards body, Latvian Standard (LVS), has officially approved ODF as a national standard. Latvia now joins Sweden, Brazil, Croatia, Italy, South Korea, and South Africa as countries whose national standards bodies have formally approved ODF. Taiwan's approval of ODF by its Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI) was announced 21 January 2009.




NEW OR IMPROVED ODF APPLICATIONS SUPPORT



DataNucleus Access Platform 1.1.0, which provides access to a range of datastores for Java applications, supports persistence/querying of OpenDocument spreadsheets. http://www.datanucleus.com/news/access_pla...

ShowDocument is a free service for online meetings with fully synchronized co-browsing of any document in ODF or other file formats. http://www.showdocument.com/

Gnumeric 1.9.4, the latest version of the Gnome office spreadsheet, is now out. http://projects.gnome.org/gnumeric/announcements/...

SpreadsheetExport is a PHP library for exporting spreadsheet data into different formats. Currently CSV and ODS (OpenDocument) are supported. http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=253957

Sun ODF Plug-In 3.0 for Microsoft Office is now available, giving users of Microsoft Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint the ability to read, edit and save to ODF. http://www.sun.com/software/star/odf_plugin/index.jsp

Officeshots.org, a collaborative initiative of the Dutch government program "Netherlands in Open Connection" (NOiV) and the OpenDoc Society, is a free, web-based online tool allowing users to compare the output quality of a large number of office suites and web-based productivity applications. http://officeshots.org/

Universal Extractor allows you to extract files, including ODF, from any type of archive. http://worldforfree.net/2009/02/04/universal-extractor-1.6.html




NEW ALLIANCE MEMBERS



Please welcome the following new members: Naber Web Solutions (Germany); Forex Direkt (Germany); Control Engineering Sweden AB; WWR systems (The Netherlands); and Dr. Hellmuth Broda Consulting (Switzerland).




EVENTS CALENDAR



Netherlands Open in Connection (NOiV) Congress [5 March 2009 – Utrecht, The Netherlands] http://www.ecp.nl/agenda/id=353/Het_NOiV_jaarcongres_2009.html

GoOpen 2009 [16-17 April 2009 – Oslo Norway] http://goopen2009.friprog.no/

Archaeo FOSS 2009 [27-28 April – Rome, Italy] http://www.archeo-foss.org/

eLiberatica 2009 [23 May 2009 – Bucharest, Romania] http://www.eliberatica.ro/2009/

Berlin Open 2009 [22-23 June 2009 – Berlin, Germany] http://www.grancanariadesktopsummit.org/index.php/Main_Page

Gran Canaria Desktop Summit [3-11 July 2009 – Canary Islands, Spain] http://www.grancanariadesktopsummit.org/index.php/Main_Page




ODF IN THE NEWS



Thumbs up for open source as UK backs ODF [John E. Dunn|TechWorld] http://www.techworld.com/applications/news/index.cfm?n...

Britain Endorses ODF; Why Not The U.S.? [Charles Babcock|InformationWeek] http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2....

Government expands support for ODF and open source software [Antony Savvas|ComputerWeekly.com] http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/02/26/23...

UK Government Endorses Open Source and ODF [Simon Phipps|Sun Mink] http://blogs.sun.com/webmink/entry/uk_government_endorses_open_source

Venice region settles on open source and open standards [Gijs Hillenius|OSOR.eu] http://www.osor.eu/news/it-venice-region-settles-on-...

Looking for Good Ideas for ODF-Next [Rob Weir|An Antic Disposition] http://www.robweir.com/blog/2009/02/looking-for-good-i...

Recent Techrights' Posts

Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Slop Images in VentureBeat, Linux Foundation Spam Made With LLM Slop and Slop Images
The only relief or upside - if any exists - is that the pace of slop was down a bit this week
Richard Stallman (RMS) Talk in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress Will be Remote
This past week RMS received lots of accolades online
Links 28/08/2025: Chatbots Distorting/Fabricating History and Also Driving Suicide
Links for the day
 
No, 4Chan is Not Fighting for You by Lawyering Up Against Ofcom (UK)
Don't mistake proto-fascists for people who "fight for you". They don't.
Downlplaying the Impact of "UEFI 9/11" is a Losing Strategy
we won't publish much whilst on holiday
In Many Places in the World Vista 11 "Market Share" is Going Down, Not Up
In some countries Windows is already down to third place or lower
More Microsoft-Connected Layoffs, at Least Third Time This Month! (Also Another Death on Campus)
Microsoft as a "gaming" company is where studios, projects, games, and even developers come to die
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 28, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 28, 2025
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Poems, Games, and Java 25 Performance
Links for the day
Links 28/08/2025: Greenland 'Interferences' by US and Skinnerboxes to Get Banned in Korean Schools
Links for the day
The Register MS (Run by Microsoft Operatives): Free Software is Putin, Hence Evil and Dangerous
The current editor in chief is an American Microsofter, the previous one went to work for Google (US)
Gemini Links 28/08/2025: Back in Japan and Why "Hacker News" Sucks
Links for the day
A Much-Needed Wake-up Call to Users of Wordpress.com, Blogspot, Substack and All Those Other Outsourced (and Centralised) Platforms
There are several lessons in there
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Resists Software Freedom, Even by Attacking Its Own
The OSI is compromised
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 27, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com, Slopfarms in Google News, and More
Some readers of ours end up sending us links that are from slopfarms, not realising those are slopfarms
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Katrina Memories and Google Versus Software Freedom
Links for the day
Links 27/08/2025: Police Against Media Freedom in the UK, Energy-Hungry Countries Targeted by China
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows Fell to All-Time Lows in Egypt This Summer, Vista 11 Adoption Decreases While GNU/Linux Increases
Vista 11 is going down rather than up
Links 27/08/2025: Microsoft Demoralises Staff With Slop Demands, Leaving Mastodon Explained
Links for the day
12 Hours Ago The Register MS Published a Fake (Paid-for) Article, But This One for a Change Did Not Promote a Ponzi Scheme
There are also Free software alternatives, but they don't pay The Register MS for "synthetic" so-called 'journalism'
More People Need to Call Out and Put a Stop to Serial Sloppers
Unless slopfarms are stopped, people will read and share Microsoft propaganda made by chatbots
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Headphones and Tartarus
Links for the day
Morale at Microsoft is Terrible (Proprietary Plagiarism Machines Have No Future, LLM Slop is a Bubble)
The slop sceptics/critics are going to have lots of "told you so" moments
GNOME "governance issues, staff reduction, etc." amidst Albanian whistleblowing and women trafficking
Notice the connection to Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and GNOME
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 26, 2025