[NLnet Press] Press release "Free webservice lets user compare office applications"

Fri Jan 30 23:10:51 CET 2009

The Dutch government program "Netherlands in Open Connection" and
OpenDoc Society have announced they are collaborating on an online
document factory to compare office suite applications. The free
webservice Officeshots.org should be available by the end of February
2009. Users will be able to online compare the output quality of a large
number of office suites as well as web-based productivity applications.
The collaboration was announced during a well visited ODF conference in
Maarssen, The Netherlands. The project is financially supported by a
grant from the Netherlands based not-for-profit investor NLNet Foundation.

"Thanks to the adoption of open standards like the Open Document Format,
the number of productivity applications is increasing rapidly. 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 will ensure that you do not need to blindly trust a
supplier when he claims to support a certain document format. Seeing is
believing."

"We want to make the differences between the various applications
visible and measurable, which will stimulate suppliers to make quality
improvements" said Ineke Schop, program manager at Netherlands in Open
Connection."Because a user can simply upload a document and see the
output of the various applications they get a powerful tool to make
quality differences measurable. The service also helps designers to
compare the rendering of document templates and letterheads in different
office suites. "This helps governments choose the right application and
supports 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.

The tool will be multilingual from the start. The web service will
launch as a closed beta for members of the OpenDoc Society at the end of
February, followed by a public launch planned one month later.

*** Note to the editors

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

For more information:

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

~ Fabrice Mous
~ telnr: +31 70 888 77 17
~ tel: +31 648 58 51 62
~ mail: fabrice.mous [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". NLnet believes in
open standards and open source. At the moment, dozens of projects and
organizations are supported financially. Amongst them: research
laboratory NLnet Labs, the Free Software Foundation, OpenDoc Society,
Intelligent Interactive Distributed Systems, and the Internet Society.

~                                             More info: http://nlnet.nl
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