19-21 September 2007, Barcelona, Spain

 
Hosted by OOoCon (OpenOffice.org Conference) and managed by the OASIS ODF Adoption Committee, this workshop will bring together ODF and XML developers interested in identifying and resolving differences between key implementations of the OpenDocument OASIS Standard. This is intended to be the first in a series of developer workshops. All are welcome to attend; participants must register with OOoCon.

 

By Wyatt Kash, GCN

The news earlier this month that Massachusetts was likely to approve Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML) format as an alternative for creating state documents set off a fresh firestorm of debate over proprietary versus open document formats.

The proposal, included in a new draft of Massachusetts’ enterprise technical reference model, effectively reverses a controversial stand the commonwealth took two years ago when it announced plans to ban the use of proprietary formats in creating government documents.

SEPT-Solutions, the leading provider of OpenDocument software for mobile devices, is proud to announce the availability of Mobile Office, a complete viewer for the OpenDocument format, for the latest UIQ devices on the market, the Motorola Z8 as well as the Sony Ericsson P1.

By Joab Jackson, GCN

Despite heated rhetoric over open document formats, there’s not much to choose between ODF and Office Open XML.

In 2004, the State Department decreed that its official font henceforth would be Times New Roman, a more modern-looking design than its previous official font, the typewriter-esque Courier New. But in updating the look of its correspondence, the agency was also unintentionally locking itself into one vendor for desktop office productivity software, said Red Hat legal counsel Mark Webbink.

By Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service

Denmark's government agencies will be required to handle two competing document format standards, the Open Document Format (ODF) and Microsoft's Open XML, during a one-year test period that will begin next year.

Denmark is requiring both standards for the test period since neither are "fully mature," said Rachid El Mousti, senior adviser for the IT strategy division of Denmark's National IT and Telecom Agency.