Bonum Certa Men Certa

Helge Sander Helps Microsoft Again by Blocking ODF in Denmark

Dannebrog



Summary: Danish minister with history of Microsoft affinity is suspending a move to make OpenDocument Format the only national standard

THE saga surrounding Denmark never seems to end. Considering the size of this country, the amount of information about ODF and OOXML that comes from there is staggering. Some of our previous posts covered both the scandals and the wins of ODF. We wrote about OOXML and ODF in Denmark under:





Some of the above information may be required for good understanding of how Denmark reached its current policy and controversy. Its delegation at the OOXML BRM, for example, was stuffed by Microsoft. Its national standards body is internally divided and as more recent posts show (the above is chronologically sorted), the head of this body accused Microsoft of "lying" earlier this month. Tough words, true words.

There is a major new development in Denmark and Josef Assad (Danish) writes: "It looks like the Danish public sector might announce #ODF as the chosen standard later today. http://bit.ly/5noiB8"

"Yes glad someone didn't fall for M$ propaganda - http://bit.ly/6seZLp (Denmark looks to go for ODF only)," argues another Dane.

Leif Lodahl, who is renowned for his work spreading ODF and Free software (OpenOffice.org) in Denmark, writes: "The Parliament said #ODF only! The Minister of Technology said NO and told his 'big brother'; Minister of Finance."

Guess who that would be? Helge Sander. Again.

This has been covered as it developed, primarily by IDG in Denmark. Articles include:



Ebbe Petersen from Denmark writes: "ODF/OOXML standard discussion in The parliament, sigh! In the future, office packages will support each others ISO, so full backing to ITST."

Later came IDG with this report about Helge Sander's disruptive role.

For those who cannot recall, the Sander report was rather hostile towards standards (ODF) and neglected to account for Microsoft scandals. Why would Sander be so apologetic towards Microsoft? Many people have just asked the same question. To quote: "I Wonder how much Microsoft pay Helge Sander (http://bit.ly/6Hc88a) to work against Open Document Format (ODF)"

Here is another IDG article about Sander's blockade. What it may not say is that Sander has history with Microsoft. From Microsoft.com:

"As part of our software strategy, we asked Microsoft to provide us with technology that would help exchange our many millions of documents. We wanted something that would make communication easier, create interoperability and stimulate innovation," said Helge Sander, minister for Science, Technology and Innovation for the Danish government. "Microsoft has responded with a clear step in the right direction by making its XML technology openly available. This enables our E-Government solutions to utilize standards-based technology while further enabling open and effective tools for our citizens and government."


He also met Bill Gates under the banner of "openness initiative" (seriously, it's no joking matter):

Helge Sander has recently talked with Microsoft's founder Bill Gates about the need for greater openness. The Danish government stresses the importance of open standards, efficient exploitation of software and healthy market competition. For its part Microsoft characterises the Danish government's focus on standard- based technologies like XML as visionary. The iconic software concern's initiative in Denmark will soon be followed by similar initiatives in other European countries. The news is reported by Computerworld online.


Leif Lodahl had his own interpretation a couple of years ago. Sander's unofficial service for Microsoft is not exactly news.

Please tell me why The Prime Minister Ander Fogh Rasmussen and Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Helge Sander is so happy about Microsoft?

[...]

In 2002 Microsoft bought the Danish IT-company called 'Navision'. ERP etc., now called Microsoft Dynamics a company in Vedbæk, just a few miles north of Copenhagen. Today there is about 1.400 employees and Dynamics in Vedbæk is the largest Microsoft development center outside the US. In February 2005 Bill Gates visited Copenhagen and at a meeting with The Prime Minister and The Minister of Science, Bill Gates threatened to take development 'home' (to the States), if the Danish government became too hostile to Microsoft. This is about the same time, where Europe began to find out what was going on in State of Massachusetts. My guess is that some promises was made at the meeting.


So once again Sander is obstructing open standards and instead defending Microsoft's cash cow, which is of course proprietary and does not support ODF properly [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. It is also rather concerning that almost all the coverage comes from IDG, which does business with Microsoft [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. This type of 'monopoly' over information that people receive can be misused and often enough we have shown that it does get abused.

Here is an automated translation of one report about Sander's impact:

IT decision put on hold



Folketing's IT committee could not convince Helge Sander, of the IT standards of the public to use. The decision is now on standby.

It remains open what file formats the public need. It was otherwise expected that the Folketing's IT committee Wednesday evening would agree on the so-called open document standards, ie free file formats, public institutions must use in the future. But a majority of the IT committee could not convince Science Minister Helge Sander (V).


With Microsoft cronies seemingly everywhere, it is reasonable to be skeptical.

Peter Krantz writes about the situation in another Scandinavian country. He writes: "Norway evaluating ODF and the two OOXML:s for national generic document standard."

We wrote about Norway's struggles against OOXML lock-in under:



On the upside, ODF carries on growing an ecosystem of templates, tools, and developers. One of them asks: "Does anyone know how to manipulate opendocument files with ruby?"

From around the same area comes Bart Hanssens who shares links to Ruby tools for ODF, not all of which are new. There are lots of ODF projects out there which do not receive the recognition they deserve.

The lpOD Project develops a set of multilanguage tools around the OpenDocument Format standard.

* Development of a library implementing the ISO/IEC 26300 OpenDocument Format standard in extenso. * Development of a set of high-level APIs in the Python, Perl, Ruby languages. The project has some industrial relevance through projects and applications in the fields of Business Intelligence (BI) , CMS applied to museography, ETL, etc.


Here is a new post on "ODF Templating using Appy pod."

I you ever need to generate ODF documents from Python, do give pod a try!


Bart Hanssens also shares information about YaBS, which we mentioned some days ago.

YaBS, the successor of MP Invoicing, is an Enterprise Resource Planner for managing products and contacts. It can be used to generate offers, orders, invoices, and includes basic book keeping. YaBS can export to ODF and PDF.


Apart from more ODF fanfare (and even literature) from the likes of Jomar Silva, there is also this good new essay on the importance of open standards. ODF is given as an example of an open standard, whereas OOXML is treated as proprietary (as it should be treated).

There are some file formats which are published, open standards. Portable Document Format (PDF) is one you've probably heard of. HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is another. OpenDocument Format (ODF) is an ISO international standard, and the tools to use that format are free. But there are other file formats which are proprietary, and can only be edited natively in one specific application. The formats used by Microsoft Word (DOC and lately DOCX) come to mind. WordPerfect (WPS) is another program which uses a proprietary file format to store information.

If I receive a PDF or HTML file, I can open it in a wide variety of applications, some of which are both well designed and obtainable for free. But if I'm sent a WPS or DOCX, I need the specific application that was used to create the file to open it reliably. Requiring me to have certain computer software doesn't seem very inclusive. “But everybody has Microsoft Word!” you might be thinking to yourself. Is that the same “everybody” who celebrates Christmas? Think about that.


In summary, eyes should now be on Denmark because Sander poses as a barrier which needs to be removed. He acts as an agent of monopolisation.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Ubuntu Desktop Director of Engineering Has Only One Blog Post. It Promotes Microsoft Windows.
Remember that even 15 years ago (more or less, maybe 16 years ago) Canonical appointed a a 'former' Microsoft manager (Spencer) to lead Ubuntu on the desktop
IBM Red Hat on "era of cloud computing", pushing "hey hi" (AI) hype in Microsoft Azure
LLM slop might actually be more benign than Microsoft promotion
Corruption and Rule-Breaking Prevail at the European Patent Office (EPO), Europe's Second-Largest Institution
The law does not really exist at the EPO; it can be perceived as merely a "recommendation"
404 Media Says "Workers at NASA Told to Drop Everything to Scrub Mentions of Indigenous People, Women from Its Websites" But There's Also Accessibility in the Firing Line
In the case of abandoning accessibility, everyone stands to be hurt and proprietary software can be brought in to replace standards
 
Links 06/02/2025: YouTube Takedowns Out of Control, 'DOGE' Breaking Laws
Links for the day
statCounter: More Countries Where Windows is Around 1% "Market Share" (People Have Moved to Android/Linux)
in some nations Windows is already 1% or less
When BetaNews Writes Real Articles About "Linux" They Promote Windows
The Web is in a bad state. We need to at least try to correct this.
Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Cynicism and "Real Magic on the C64"
Links for the day
Links 06/02/2025: New Sanctions, Layoffs, and Executive Orders
Links for the day
Distros and Desktop Environments, Devices
GNU/Linux focused
New Rumours of IBM Layoffs in 2025, IBM Consulting Still Struggles, Based on Management
"Hey hi" (AI) has been a common excuse for business failure
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 05, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, February 05, 2025
Links 05/02/2025: Kessler Syndrome and News Online
Links for the day
statCounter: Monaco Now 7% GNU/Linux ("Proper")
GNU/Linux, not counting Chromebooks, is on the rise
Many Parts of Google Lose Money
It's quite apparent that many parts of Google - even some that rely on ad revenue or push ads - aren't profiting
European Internet Forum (EIF) is Dominated by American Corporations and Microsoft Lobbyists, Staff Take the Lead
Should the officials over here or the European Parliament pay attention to these people?
Links 05/02/2025: Connection without Connectivity and Unionised Grocery Workers
Links for the day
Just Because People on Top of the Microsoft Pyramid Made a Lot of Money Doesn't Mean Microsoft is Wealthy
The bigger they are the harder they fall
Gemini Links 05/02/2025: Learning, Madman Ruling a Mad Country, Back in Geminispace
Links for the day
statCounter Shows "WIntel" Chasing a Dying Market
Microsoft acts as if it's running out of money
Free Software Foundation, Inc. (FSF) Still Raising Money, Richard Stallman Contributes
total exceeding $430k
A Lot of Stuff About "Linux" in Google News is LLM Slop, Fake 'Articles'
It seems to be getting worse
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 04, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, February 04, 2025
'Official' Debian Sites That Sell Proprietary and Surveillance
"Azure API throttling strikes back"
statCounter: Only 1 in ~40 Web Users in Ireland Uses Microsoft Browser, One in Six Uses Windows
When/if Windows market share goes down, so will Edge
Links 04/02/2025: Social Control Media Bans and US Fighting Its Allies, Not Russia
Links for the day
Links 04/02/2025: Birth of a Calf, FOSDEM, and More
Links for the day
Anti-Linux FUD Sites cybersecuritynews.com and gbhackers.com Turn Out to be LLM Slop, Even Plagiarism That Spreads Lies
Beware false headlines and fake text from cybersecuritynews.com and gbhackers.com
BetaNews Began Removing LLM Slop About "Linux", But More of It Keeps Coming From Guardian Digital, Inc (at linuxsecurity.com)
the other Serial Slopper, Guardian Digital, Inc
Mollamby, Suicide Cluster, not trademark, the real reasons for Debian legal expenses, evidence
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 04/02/2025: Mass Layoffs at Salesforce, Economic Pressures, Trade Wars
Links for the day
The Latest Microsoft Layoffs Are a Wake-up Call: The Company is Running Low on Money
in most areas it is not even profitable
[Video] Richard Stallman Auctioning a GNU (Gnu) at Surathkal, India
clip is only a minute-long
Software Freedom Month at NITK Surathkal and Yesterday's Talk by Richard Stallman
the message being spread by the person who started it all
Richard Stallman Has Another Talk in India Tomorrow, at Least Fourth India Talk in Recent Days
In the past month he has given at least half a dozen talks
statCounter: GNU/Linux and ChromeOS Now Measured at 2.78% in Japan (It Used to be Less Than 0.5%)
really 'took off' half a decade ago
GNU/Linux Reaches All-Time High in the United States, Based on statCounter
Windows is the loser; GNU/Linux grows at its expense
LLM Hype (Chatbots Hyped and Wrongly Characterised as "Artificial Intelligence") Cause Net Inflation
Net as in Internet, not limited to the Web
It Looks Like BetaNews' Managing Editor Wayne Williams is Taking Over From Fagioli After Repeat Pattern of LLM Slop (State-of-the-Art Plagiarism) About "Linux"
The most plausible explanation is, Fagioli got caught or his conduct could no longer be ignored
statCounter Reckons Less Than 10% in Mexico Still Use Windows to Access to Web and GNU/Linux Surges to All-Time High (Plus, Microsoft's Latest Debt Crisis)
Looking at Mexico in isolation
From India to Italy: Richard Stallman's Next Talk is Next Week in Torino
Announced less than a day ago
Corporate Media is Intentionally Lying for Microsoft, There's Now a Hiring Freeze, No Replacements for Workers Laid Off in Two Mass Layoffs Last Month
Maybe the media - at least some of it - actually deserves doom. If it covers up for the powerful to muzzle and gaslight the oppressed, then what sort of media is that anyway?
Gemini Links 04/02/2025: Tolkien and New Job
Links for the day
Covering EPO Scandals in an Age of Mass Censorship (and Europe Being Afraid to Introspect, for It Might "Help Putin")
It was all along expected that "external enemies" would be invoked to suppress discussion about EPO crimes
Facebook Finally Admits That It Censored Linux and Banned People for Mentioning It; statCounter Shows Rapid Growth for GNU/Linux in Southeast Asia
So GAFAM is losing its power
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, February 03, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, February 03, 2025