[OpenDoc Announce] Netherlands government launches ODF service together with OpenDoc Society

Tue Nov 3 23:57:20 CET 2009

Dear members,

the following press release was just sent out. We are glad to see
the Officeshots service now available for everyone to use. We have 
concluded the ODF plugfest in Orvieto, Italy. The event was a great
success, again bringing together about forty participants from 
vendors across the planet - from Google, Microsoft, Novell and IBM
to open source projects like KOffice, Go-OO and OpenOffice.org.

We are working on an overview of what was achieved at the plugfest, 
please take a look at the http://plugtest.opendocsociety.org wiki 
to check it out for yourself. If you want to help OpenDoc Society,
please consider adding an office suite to Officeshots, make a 
translation to your local language, run a factory (it is really
very simple, all you need is an office suite, a python script,
a free digital certificate and a login to the service. It is an
open source project, meaning that you can contribute code as well,
of course.

Enjoy! And we are curious to hear your suggestions for enhancing
this service.

Kind regards,
the board of OpenDoc Society 

Press release

"Netherlands government launches ODF service at Italian Plugfest 
'interoperability effort makes market more transparent

     Orvieto, Italy/The Hague, The Netherlands, November 3 2009

The Dutch government program "Netherlands in Open Connection" 
and OpenDoc Society have announced the public availability of 
a beta version of Officeshots.org. Officeshots is an online 
webservice that makes it possible to compare the output 
quality of various office suites as well as web-based 
productivity applications. The project is financially 
supported by a grant from the Netherlands based not-for-profit 
investor NLNet Foundation. 

The announcement took place during the second ODF plugfest, 
which brought together vendors and open source projects like 
IBM, Google, KOffice, Microsoft, Novell and OpenOffice.org. 
"In a mature market a user should be able to compare the various 
suppliers transparently." says Bert Bakker, president of the 
OpenDoc Society.  "Officeshots.org ensures that you can see 
who delivers the best support for document exchange standards"

The service is available in a number of languages, including 
English, French, German, Chinese and Dutch. Users can submit 
a document, and can see what the output is of the various 
applications on the market. Officeshots gives both end users and 
developers a powerful tool to make quality differences measurable. 
Vendors are encouraged to add new office products themselves to 
the service, to allow customers to check as many products on the 
market prior to purchase.

"We want to make interoperability quantifiable" said Ineke Schop, 
program manager at Netherlands in Open Connection."Any differences 
between the various applications are now visible and measurable, 
which helps support the ambitions of the Dutch cabinet to 
standardise on ODF and PDF for document exchange."

Under the "Netherlands in Open Connection" action plan, the Dutch 
administration accepts and uses the Open Document Format as of 
April last year. Other government bodies in the Netherlands do 
so since January 2009. The program is a joint initiative of the 
Dutch government, led by the minister for Foreign Trade Heemskerk
and the State Secretary for the Interior and Kingdom Relations 
Bijleveld-Schouten.

*** Note to the editors

Some more information can be found at: http://officeshots.org

For more information:

  Michiel Leenaars
  OpenDoc Society
  tel: +31 6 27050947
  mail: michiel [@t] opendocsociety.org
  sip: michiel [@t] nlnet.nl

  Pim Bliek
  Netherlands in Open Connection
  telnr: +31 70 888 74 35
  mail: pim.bliek [at] noiv [dot] nl

About the quoted persons:

Bert Bakker (1958) is president of OpenDoc Society, other affiliations
include President of the Association for International Labor brokers and
the board of Mira Media, seeking diversity in the media. He is employed as a
senior advisor to international strategy consultants Meines & Partners. From
1994 to 2006 he was a prominent member of the Dutch House of Commons on behalf
of D66 as their financial spokesperson. In addition he was involved with
economic affairs, defense and media. He was chairman of the inquiry into
the fall of Yuguslavian enclave Srebrenica, which led to the fall of the
Dutch cabinet. Before he joined parliament he held a number of other
positions, including being a correspondent of the Universitaire Pers
(University Press) and head of administrative affairs and information of   
the SER (Social and Economic Council). He became a well-known public
figure through his chairmanship of the inquiry that examined the
peacekeeping missions of the Dutch army.

Ineke Schop is program manager of the Netherlands in Open Connection. As
program manager she is responsible for collaborating within the
government in order to achieve more interoperability through the use of
open standards. In addition NoiV promotes open source software wherever
possible. Prior to her engagement at NoiV mrs. Schop was program manager
at the Dutch e-Government program for municipalities EGEM.

Logo's of the Nederlands in open Connection and of OpenDoc Society are 
enclosed. Print quality logo's can be sent by enquiry. Logo's for NLnet
can be found at http://nlnet.nl/logo

More info on the Netherlands government policy on ODF and other open
standards:

           http://www.ososs.nl/about_ososs

http://www.noiv.nl/files/Actionplan%20The%20Netherlands%20in%20Open%20Connection.pdf
--------------------

*** About OpenDoc Society

The goal of OpenDoc Society is to bring together individuals and
organisations with a stake or interest in the openness and future of
documents to learn from each other and share knowledge. OpenDoc Society
offers a platform where developers, publishers, decision makers,
educators, vendors, IT managers, academics, writers, archivists and
other stakeholders kan bring their knowledge together and learn and
collaborate with interesting like-minded people. OpenDoc Society wants
to build local human networks of experts and stakeholders in ODF from
all areas. It want to be a leading organisation in spreading knowledge
about open format like ODF and PDF to society at large, through
publications, workshops, masterclasses, tutorials for developers,
decision makers, users and other stakeholders. It wants to foster and
strengthen the ecosystem around open document formats: from enterprise
content management, assistive software for the visually impaired up to  
readers for cell phones and game consoles. OpenDoc Society is supported 
by a large number of organisations, including government bodies,
international corporations, educational, cultural and scientific
institutions and NGO's .  If you care about an open information society
and a transparent market, why don't you join?

                               More info: http://nl.opendocsociety.org

Netherlands in Open Connection (Nederland Open in Verbinding)

The Netherlands in Open Connection (NOiV) informs government
organizations about the possibilities of open standards (OS) and open  
source software (OSS) and encourages them, where possible to fit into   
their information systems. The program is based on the Action programmes
Netherlands in Open Connection, initated by the Netherlands minister of
Foreign Trade and the state secretary of Interior and Kingdom Relations
in September 2007. The program NOiV offers practical support in the form
of information, knowledge and tools for government organizations open
source software can use. The program is executed by ICTU Foundation,
commissioned by the Ministry of Economy Affairs and the Ministry of 
Interior Affairs and Kingdom Relations. The activities of the program
are primarily aimed at policy makers and public sector ICT management
and their suppliers. In addition, NOiV has a coordinating role with the
parties from the government and semi-government and the private sector.

                                             More info: http://noiv.nl

*** About NLnet Foundation

NLnet Foundation is a private charity fund supporting open standards and
open source worldwide, and has over the years actively contributed to  
(internet) standards, open source projects and subsidiary or enabling
activities such as the development of GPLv3. NLnet foundation is an
independent organisation whose means came initially from interest on a
very substantial own capital formed in 1997 by the sale of the first  
Dutch Internet Service Provider. Its private capital ensures an absolute
independent position. The articles of association for the NLnet
foundation state: "to promote the exchange of electronic information and
all that is related or beneficial to that purpose".

                                          More info: http://nlnet.nl

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