[ODFPlugtest] FW: Press release : Dutch government puts more weight behind open standard for office

Thu Oct 1 09:11:09 CEST 2015

Hi Andras, all,

here is the English language press release that our host Logius sent
out. The report is still being worked on.

Best,
Michiel

-------- Forwarded Message --------

*Van:*Thiel, T. (Tim) - Logius
*Verzonden:* maandag 28 september 2015 14:59
*Onderwerp:* Press release : Dutch government puts more weight behind
open standard for office

*PRESS RELEASE*

*-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*

    /Dutch government puts more weight behind open standard for office/

"ODF is economic and social responsibility"

The Netherlands government is determined to speed up the adoption of ODF
across government. This was one of the major announcements at the 11th
ODF Plugfest <http://www.odfplugfest.org/> in The Hague, where a group
of international developers, EU policy makers, digital archivists,
academics and other experts gathered around Open Document Format (ODF).

"Due to its size the public sector is a major stakeholder in a healthier
future for office applications", says Steven Luitjens, director of
Logius <https://www.logius.nl/>, the largest IT operational organization
within the Netherlands government. "It is our economic and social
responsibility to do better. This is why we in the Netherlands are
ramping up our efforts to play a meaningful part in the huge transition
governments as well as the private sector are facing from vendor-driven
productivity suites to better and more tailor-made open standards driven
solutions."

"The need to adopt ODF is a no-brainer,"says Nico Westpalm van Hoorn,
chairman of the Netherlands government body responsible for selecting IT
standards for government <https://www.forumstandaardisatie.nl/>. "But
adoption is taking too long. We are putting ODF at the top of our list".

The ODF plugfests are a unique ongoing Europian series of vendor-neutral
events around office applications, bringing together implementers and
stakeholders of the standard on neutral ground to achieve maximum
interoperability. The event was organised by OpenDoc Society
<http://www.opendocsociety.org/> and hosted by Logius and Forum
Standaardisatie (both part of The Netherlands Ministry of the Interior
and Kingdom Relations
<https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/ministeries/ministerie-van-binnenlandse-zaken-en-koninkrijksrelaties>).

Jos van den Oever, co-chair of the ODF technical committee, welcomed the
announcement. "We actively encourage participation of large users in the
work of the ODF TC and in the community around it, especially
governments", says Jos van den Oever, co-chair of the ODF technical
committee. "If we want to advance the state of the art and mature the
ecosystem, we need input and involvement from the heavy users. In return
such organisations can vastly increase both their return on investment,
as well as their productivity and autonomy". Van den Oever himself is
proof of such increased involvement: he is a renowned software developer
and a member of the UNESCO PERSIST technology task force, that was
recently elected as the first government employee ever to co-leading the
international development efforts of the ODF standard.

    /Major announcements:/

The plugfest saw some major announcements both by vendors and from
governments.

·         Kolab Systems first publicly showcased their upcoming open
source collaborative editor Manticore
<http://odfplugfest.org/ViewerJS/#../2015-thehague/programme/pres/20150915-AdityaBhatt.pdf>.

·         Microsoft announced that their roadmap
<http://odfplugfest.org/ViewerJS/#../2015-thehague/programme/pres/20150915-BorisDevouge.pdf>
includes adding support for importing and exporting to ODF 1.2 to all of
their mobile apps and non-Windows desktop lineup.

·         The Netherlands government announced a stronger enforcement of
its existing ODF policy to speed up adoption.

·         The UK Government Digital Services shared the journey that led
them from user needs to a government-wide policy on the use of ODF, and
the extensive guidance on best practices for ODF usage they published
last week.

·         The Netherlands government announced that they will join the
OASIS ODF technical committee
<https://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=office>
through Logius.

Read the technical results in the ODF press release.

Kind regards,

*Tim Thiel*

* *

Public Relations Officer

*Forum Standardization / Logius*

*Netherlands Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations*

* *

Wilhelmina van Pruisenweg 52 | 2595 AN | Den haag

Postbus 96810 | 2509 JE | Den Haag

*M   *+31 (0)6 -  15 88 63 61

*E*    tim.thiel at logius.nl <mailto:tim.thiel at logius.nl>

*W   *www.forumstandaardisatie.nl <http://www.forumstandaardisatie.nl>

*T*    @openstandaarden <https://twitter.com/openstandaarden>

Is jouw internet up-to-date? Test zelf.

*W   *www.internet.nl <http://www.forumstandaardisatie.nl>

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