[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] | [List Home]
Subject: RE: [odf-adoption] Which ODF are we talking about?
Erwin, It seems I have stepped on some toes here. Fact is that in current situation most government organisations including tax admin use Microsoft office products whether we like it or not. Government organisations have to work as efficient as possible. Space there was in the past for departments to choose their own products is vanishing fast. Governments have to be internally interoperable. They also have to retain documents for long periods. A open document format that enables documents to be stored for a long time is a big issue. In my country we now convert to XML but lose mark-up in this way. I am a strong believer in a document format that enables us to store, exchange and retrieve documents independent from vendors applications and useful over time. The current ODF specification is not supported by Microsoft. This puts a lot of companies including governments is a "have to wait" position or "have to develop ourselves" position. What we need is consensus in the market and to unite users to convince developers in the direction of openness. I am totally on the user end of the spectrum. I have seen the presentation of a SUN employee on behalf of the ODF TC on the OASIS adoption forum in London a couple of months back. The message was clear: "users have to choose" Open office or Microsoft office. My comment that by this positioning you do not help corporate users but simply push them into implementation problems, did not ring any bell. "I simply was not a believer yet" This TC has the potential to lift itself above the battles and work on the consensus or get sucked into one of the competing fractions. It might be clear where I stand. I am not willing to choose for a vendor at this point I want to help, helping users where a document format sits in the life line of their organisation. As government employee I am willing to use buying power to help achieving common goals. Standards should not be in the competitive arena. They are there for enabling end users. Some governments feel so strong about that that they join OASIS to help. That means that our work in this TC could be very political. We have a opportunity here. Harm Jan van Burg Ps sorry for my English (not my native tongue) -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- Van: Erwin Tenhumberg [mailto:Erwin.Tenhumberg@Sun.COM] Verzonden: vrijdag 7 april 2006 15:42 Aan: Burg, HJM (Harm Jan) van (INNOVATIE) CC: odf-adoption@lists.oasis-open.org Onderwerp: Re: [odf-adoption] Which ODF are we talking about? Dear Harm Jan, ODF is obviously to some degree a competitive play against competing formats. As a consequence, there have been competitive statements by employees from Sun, IBM, but also Microsoft. What exactly are your concerns? What do you suggest? See my additional comments inline! > There is a current ODF. A standard greatly dominated by Sun to bash What makes you think that the format is dominated by Sun beyond the fact that its orgigins are in OpenOffice.org, a Sun-founded and Sun-sponsored project? > Microsoft. The TC is about adoption of the idea of a open document > format. In my mind this forces us to start working with big industry > players (including other OASIS members) to achieve a truly open > document format. To be exact: in my mind any format not supported by > the big players does not need an adoption TC because it will never be > widely adopted. I completely agree with this statement! IBM is already a strong supporter of ODF in addition to Sun. Novell and Intel are also increasingly active on the technical side. Companies like Oracle, Software AG, EDS, etc. are members of the ODF Alliance. Thus, what makes you think that someone might not want to get the other big players involved? I'd love to win the other larger players as well! > My personal support on behalf of a couple of big tax administrations > (not only the Netherlands) is in that context only. My government or > my tax administration is currently not supporting or using the present > ODF nor does it have the intention to do so in the near future. What exactly do you mean by the "present ODF"? > Ps if this TC feels that ODF adoption has to mean: only promoting this > ODF than -of course- I will not hinder the process of this TC and > leave. What do you mean by supporting "this ODF"? Obviously, an ODF Adoption TC will focus on promoting ODF, but the goal is to support the "evolving ODF" with hopefully (!!!) increasing participation by small and large companies and organizations. Best regards, Erwin
[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] | [List Home]