[ODFPlugtest] Chatham House Rule

[Michiel Leenaars]

Hi Doug,

you are right. I had not seen that OSOR quote yet, I discussed the
plugfest in the context of a question from the journalist who
interviewed me about Microsoft having a disadvantage of being the only
implementation present at the plugfest that does not have ODF as its
default format. And that there were some challenges there with loss of
information because of that, which were identified during your
presentation about the mappings you used - which was also indeed part of
your talk at OOoCon, which is where the debate continued in a way more
public setting (and which continued at the DII event).

The idea was to positively highlight the importance of sharing
information about best practises for using ODF, not shed a negative
light on your ODF implementation. However, the OSOR article was written
about the plugfest and as such a specific public statement was indeed
not according to the rules and you have my apologies for it.

The focus of the ODF plugfest - as with any plugfest - should be on
getting maximum interoperability across all vendors, and I think
confidentiality does have an important role. There are vendors that fear
publicity while their implementation is still maturing - and we should
not hinder their participation in the plugfests. It is a positive,
non-discriminatory event where all are treated equal - clearly a step
towards maturity from the blog wars of recent years. Any comparison of
implementations should happen outside of the context of the plugfest, as
it hinders honest debate and admission of vulnerability; this is one of
the most valuable things I find at the plugfest, for people to regularly
discuss interpretation and implementation issues and best practises
across company borders.

Thank you for pointing that out, and I'm sure at the next plugfest we
will all abide with the Chatham House rules.

Best,
Michiel