IBM, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Google, Novell, Red Hat, US Department of Defense, Belgian Fedict, South Africa Dept of Science and Technology, and others collaborate to deliver true data interoperability for office applications.
OASIS has formed a new group to help implementors create applications that conform to ODF. The new OASIS ODF Interoperability and Conformance (OIC) Committee will work to ensure that the growing number of ODF-compliant applications are able to interoperate and conform to the standard.
"As more and more software providers around the world are basing their office productivity products on ODF, the need to support conformance and interoperability has become extremely important," said Rob Weir of IBM, convenor of the OASIS OIC Committee. "We invite and encourage participation from all ODF stakeholders—commercial and open source publishers of ODF applications, testing and certification labs, people responsible for purchasing ODF-related tools, and regulators who specify the use of document standards."
The OIC Committee will analyze the state of ODF interoperability today, make recommendations, and prioritize activities for advancing ODF conformance and interoperability. It will compile a corpus of ODF interoperability test documents, either contributions of existing work or tests developed by the Committee itself, and host multi-vendor interoperability demonstrations showcasing products that conform.
The group will also define ODF profiles designed to increase interoperability among implementations in specific vertical domains (e.g., archiving) and horizontal domains (e.g., pervasive devices or browser-based editors).
"The new OIC Committee will work closely with the OASIS ODF Technical Committee, which is where the ODF standard is maintained and advanced, and with the OASIS ODF Adoption Committee, which works to promote ODF use," noted James Bryce Clark, director of standards development at OASIS. "Having ODF development, promotion, interoperability and conformance under the same roof at OASIS ensures that a cohesive, inclusive, coordinated approach is applied across the board."
ODF is available for implementation and use, free of any licensing, royalty payments, or other restrictions. Participation in the OASIS OIC Committee—and other OASIS ODF Committees—remains open to all interested parties. Archives of OIC work will be accessible to both members and non-members, and OASIS will offer a mechanism for public comment.
Support for OIC
IBM
"The formation of the OIC Committee is very timely as the number and
variety of ODF-compliant implementations is growing very quickly. We
look forward to working as a member of the Committee with other
ODF-supporting vendors, to develop ODF-conformance tests and
assessments. We are also keenly focused on the 'call for
interoperability' to ODF-supporting products, so that vendors can
invest in independent innovation on top of the standard," said Dr.
Michael Karasick, Director of Lotus Software Development at IBM's China
Software Development Lab in Beijing.
Oracle
"Oracle's participation in the OIC Committee demonstrates our
commitment to open standards and the empowerment of customers through
the creation of an interoperable IT ecosystem. ODF is a key standard
for providing stability and interoperability for content creation,
storage, and distribution across middleware technologies, core data
infrastructure, and enterprise applications," said Don Deutsch, vice
president Standards Strategy and Architecture, Oracle.
Sun Microsystems
"As a founding member of the OASIS OpenDocument Technical Committee
(TC) and the OASIS ODF Adoption TC, Sun is glad to be involved as a
founding member of this third OpenDocument TC. We strongly support both
open standards and open source and the increasing success of
OpenDocument which is a perfect example of what happens when open
standards meet open source. We are looking forward to contributing our
experience to this TC and furthering the active adoption of
OpenDocument," said Jim Parkinson, vice president Developer Tools and
Services, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Novell
"Advances in collaboration, communication and software delivery are
opening the door for new and diverse software tools used for document
creation and sharing. Diversity amplifies the need for
interoperability, and developing interoperable tools is key to
preserving and enhancing the productivity of today's global work force.
Open standards such as ODF and the efforts of the OIC Committee will
help to provide users access with choice and flexibility," said Alan
Clark, Strategic Advisor for Industry Initiatives and Standards at
Novell.
Red Hat
"Red Hat is a strong advocate of the use of royalty-free, open
standards in the technology industry. We look forward to continued
collaboration not only with other major technology companies, but also
with important global government agencies, that as end users of
technology offer a unique perspective on the importance of
interoperability for office applications," said Tom Rabon, executive
vice president, Corporate Affairs for Red Hat.
Belgian Federal Public Service for ICT (Fedict)
"Fedict actively promotes the use of open standards as a means to
improve interoperability and ensure information longevity. Uniting
experts from leading implementers, governments and organizations
throughout the world, the OASIS OIC Committee will tangibly improve the
interoperability of ODF solutions, benefiting both citizens and
companies," said Bart Hanssens, interoperability expert, Fedict.
ODF Alliance
"The number of applications implementing support for ODF continues to
grow rapidly. Helping implementors create applications which conform to
the ODF standard and which are able to interoperate is a critical task.
The formation of the new ODF Interoperability Technical Committee is
but the latest example of the ODF-supporting community in OASIS rising
to the challenges before it," said Marino Marcich, Managing Director,
ODF Alliance.
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