Quick Mention: Norway Favours OpenDocument Format in Government (Updated)

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2007-12-20 02:25:28 UTC
Modified: 2007-12-20 04:20:10 UTC

The last ODF addition which we spoke about is Wikipedia. That was yesterday. Things are looking reasonably good in Norway as well. Groklaw has a translation:

[Translation]

Norway: ODF Must Be Used on Government Websites' Forms

[...]

Everyone should have equal access to public information: Open standards become compulsory within the government

The government has decided that all information on governmental websites should be available in the open formats HTML, PDF or ODF. With this decision the times when public documents where only available in Microsoft's Word-format is coming to an end.

- Everybody should have equal access to public information. From 2009 the citizens will be able to chose which software to use in order to gain access to public information. The government's decision will also improve the competition between suppliers of office applications, says IT-minister Heidi Grande RÃÂ¸ys.

This is the decision of the government:

* HTML should be the primary format for publication of public information on the Internet.

* PDF (1.4 or newer, or PDF/A - ISO 19005-1) is compulsory when you wish to preserve the original layout of a document.

* ODF (ISO/IEC 26300) must be used when publishing documents that are meant to be changed after downloading, eg. forms that are to be filled in by the user.

Norway remains one among many countries (e.g. Holland) that won't give Microsoft an easy time, not even with its 'new and shiny' proprietary formats that have a fake, paid-for label. ⬆

Related articles:

Norway and OOXML

Norway Decides: No with Comments on OOXML and a Hint from Hungary

Norway Says No to OOXML

Microsoft admits Swedish employee promised incentives for Open XML support

Update: Noooxml.org has an excellent collection of references (new and old) on this same important development.

A Norwegian view on the Office Open XML standardization process in ISO. Let us not forget that the Office Open XML standardization process before ISO has a single objective, i.e. to derail the adoption of the existing standard ISO 26300:2006 aka OpenDocument by the public sector.

The next milestone of the Project World Domino is reached. Norway adopts Open Document Format.

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Quick Mention: Norway Favours OpenDocument Format in Government (Updated)

Norway: ODF Must Be Used on Government Websites' Forms

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