[NLnet Press] Press invitation ODF plugfest - 'Office interoperability gets public sector boost'

[NLnet foundation press list]

'Office interoperability gets public sector boost'
Netherlands government and OpenDoc Society host technical plugfest

Press invitation

                                                      The Hague, June 12 2009


Over sixty representatives of forty companies, open source communities, the 
public sector, research organisations and civil society will gather next 
Monday and Tuesday to work on better interoperability between office 
applications . The so called 'ODF plugfest' will take place in the Royal 
Library, in The Hague, and brings together for the first time such larger 
market players like Microsoft, Google, IBM and OpenOffice.org - and including 
upcoming players like ZCubes, KOffice, and Abiword - to unilaterally test and 
discuss implementation issues of ODF with each other. The event is organised 
by the Netherlands government programme NoiV together with OpenDoc Society. 

ODF is the next generation exchange format for word processors, spreadsheets 
and presentations, providing a drop-in replacement for vendor-specific file 
formats as well as many exciting new possiblities and ease of use. "The market 
has chosen to support ODF across the board because it offers so many 
advantages to them and to the end user", says Bert Bakker, president of 
OpenDoc Society, "now we need to work together to support ODF in the best 
possible way in all those applications. Its a landslide move in IT which will 
finally create room for many long-awaited innovations."

The companies and communties received a personal invitation by the Netherlands   
minister for Foreign Trade, Frank Heemskerk, who will also open the event. 
Many governments including the Dutch have actively been adopting an open 
standards policy, with ODF being one of the prime drivers.  

"Clearly, the Netherlands government is committed to open standards and
to ODF in particular", says Ineke Schop, programme manager NOiV, "The
ODF policy forms one of the three pillars of the government action plan
'Netherlands in Open Connection'. This is why we took the initiative for this 
event together with OpenDoc Society. We strongly support the idea vendors, 
open source communities and users coming together to improve ODF 
interoperability."

Besides the testing activities the program includes a rich number of 
interesting plenary talks, speakers include Bart Hanssens (FEDICT), Rob Weir 
(OASIS ODF TC chair), Patrick Durusau (ODF editor), Marino Marcich (ODF 
Alliance), Doug Mahugh (Microsoft), Sander Marechal (Officeshots.org), J. 
David Ibáñez (Itaapy), Bert Bakker (OpenDoc Society) and Ineke Schop (NoiV).

--------------
You are invited to attend the plenary parts of this event. More relevant 
information can be found here:

 http://odfworkshop.nl

Inquiries:

Fabrice Mous 
T    +31 (0)70 888 78 63
M    +31 (0)648 58 51 62 
E    fabrice.mous [at] noiv.nl
W    www.noiv.nl

Michiel Leenaars
T +31 627050947
E michiel [at] opendocsociety.org
W www.opendocsociety.org


*** 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://www.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
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