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OPENOFFICE.ORG NEWSLETTER
Volume 03 - Issue 9 - 03/2006
Please send news clippings to:
newsletter@marketing.openoffice.org
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For up-to-date news visit the OpenOffice.org Newsletter Blog:
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com
To read all of this month's stories in full:
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_ooonewsletter_archive.html
ATOM feed:
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/atom.xml
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Contents
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1. Announcements
----------------
* OpenOffice.org 2.0.2 Is Here
* OOoCon 2006: Call for Papers
* UNO Runtime Environment (URE) 1.1 Released
* ODF Alliance Formed
2. Success Stories
------------------
* OpenOffice.org at Brazilian Banco do Brasil
* 4,000 copies of OpenOffice.org at the Belgium Ministry of Justice
3. Featured News
----------------
* Lyon chosen as site for OOoCon 2006
* Report from OOo seminar in Dhaka, Bangladesh
* First Winner Developer Article Contest!
* FSM: The latest episode in the Office Wars
* 'We translated a browser in a weekend into Xhosa'
* 2005 LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Award Winners Announced
* EU Ponders Antitrust Probe of Microsoft Office
* StarOffice 8: Office Killer?
4. Tips & Tricks
----------------
* Creating an e-wallet with Base
* Finding hidden treasures in OpenOffice 2.0's Charting Wizard
* OOo Off the Wall: That's Your Version--Document Control in OOo Writer
* Desktop publishing with Writer and Scribus
5. OpenDocument News Roundup
6. Clippings
7. Statistics
8. Events
All news for this month can be found at:
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_ooonewsletter_archive.html
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Want to help OpenOffice.org? Find out hot to contribute or see our
To Do List!!
http://www.openoffice.org/contributing.html
http://development.openoffice.org/todo.html
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Announcements
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OpenOffice.org 2.0.2 Is Here
----------------------------
OpenOffice.org 2.0.2 is available today. It is ready now in English;
check with the Native Language projects for other languages. The release
is recommended for everyone. It contains some nifty new features, fixes
many small bugs and resolves numerous issues. For instance, spellcheck
dictionaries are now directly integrated into OpenOffice.org and are
immediately available after installation; there is no need for extra
downloads. The community have also added import filters for Quattro Pro 6
and Microsoft Word 2. As well, other import filters have been improved,
so that documents created by other applications can be edited in
OpenOffice.org more seamlessly. Continuing with the the push to enhance
OpenOffice.org's business functionality, it is now easier to use mail
merge As well, integration with the KDE address book is now possible.
The appearance of the application has also been enhanced, and for Linux
users, there are new icon sets for KDE and GNOME. The result of this and
the other improvements is not just a prettier OpenOffice.org but a
friendlier and more capable suite.
And it's free.
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/openofficeorg-202-is-here.html
OOoCon 2006: Call for Papers
----------------------------
"We are soliciting papers from the broad OpenOffice.org community on
topics ranging from developing OpenOffice.org to marketing it; from
the global politics of the free and open-source software (FOSS)
movement to the technical challenges of localization. This conference
is meant to be a forum for technical as well as general examinations
of OpenOffice.org's place in the expanding world of FOSS."
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/ooocon-2006-call-for-papers.html
UNO Runtime Environment (URE) 1.1 Released
------------------------------------------
"Sure several errors has been fixed and What's New? Here you go,
some of them:
1. Compilation problems on GCC 4.1 has been solved by deprecating
the getCppuType functionality and offering the cppu::UnoType
functionality as a replacement.
2. The UNO Java framework has been extended to support additional
Java versions from more vendors.
3. The Java UnoClassLoader has been extended so that additional,
application-wide UNO types can be specified upon start up.
4. Utility functionality for C++ and Java has been introduced that
makes the UNO interface attributes of an object accessible via
XPropertySet.
5. Improvements to the C++ implementation helper utilities from
ppuhelper that can be used when implementing UNO components."
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/uno-runtime-environment-ure-11.html
ODF Alliance Formed
-------------------
Alliance Formed to Promote Improved Access to and Retrieval of
Electronic Government Documents
ODF Alliance includes diverse industry partners, associations, NGOs and
academic/research institutions.
The ODF Alliance was formed by a diverse coalition of more than
35 organizations from a wide range of countries around the world.
The Alliance membership includes: Adullact Association; American Library
Association; Ark Linux; The Association of Open Source Suppliers and
Vendors
in Denmark; Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (India);
Cognitran Ltd; Corel Corporation; CSW Group Ltd; EDS; EMC Corporation;
Friends of OpenDocument, Inc.; GENICORP; Indian Institute of Technology
(IIT);
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for the City of Vienna;
IBM;
Information Program, Open Society Institute; International Open Source
Network;
Justsystem Corporation; Massachusetts High Tech Council; Massachusetts
Network
Communications Council; Novell; Open Society Archives of the Central
European
University (OSA Archivum); OpenForum Europe; OpenDocument Fellowship;
The OpenDocument Foundation, Inc.; OpenOffice.org; Opera Software;
Optaros, Inc.; Oracle Corporation; OSS Alliance; Propylon Ltd; Red Hat,
Inc.;
Software & Information Industry Association; Sun Microsystems; the
Technical
University of Denmark and tarent GmbH.
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/odf-alliance-formed.html
OASIS ODF Adoption Committee Formed
-----------------------------------
"The newly formed OASIS ODF Adoption Committee, which includes IBM,
Novell, Oracle and Sun Microsystems, believes that raising awareness of
the open file format will increase the demand for and availability of
ODF-conforming products.
"The life of a document may far exceed that of a particular software
product or vendor," said IBM's Don Harbison, convener and proposed
chairman of the ODF Adoption Committee. "Users have a right to retain
control over their work, no matter when their documents were created or
what tool was used to create them. Open standards in general, and ODF in
particular, can help ensure that right. Our team will work to help users
understand what's really at stake here and the advantages ODF offers for
platform- and application-independent documents."
ODF was approved as an OASIS standard in May 2005 and was submitted by
OASIS to the International Organization for Standardization /
International Electrotechnical Commission (IOS/IEC) Joint Technical
Committee for further approval as a de jure standard. ODF is maintained
and advanced by the OASIS OpenDocument Technical Committee, which was
formed in November 2002."
http://au.sys-con.com/read/194878.htm
Success Stories
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OpenOffice.org at Brazilian Banco do Brasil
-------------------------------------------
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/dancer?entry=openoffice_org_at_brazilian_banco#comments
4,000 copies of OpenOffice.org at the Belgium Ministry of Justice
-----------------------------------------------------------------
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/dancer?entry=4_000_copies_of_openoffice#comments
Featured News
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Lyon chosen as site for OOoCon 2006
-----------------------------------
"OpenOffice.org members last week selected Lyon, France, as the location
of the next OpenOffice.org Conference, or OOoCon. In previous years,
OOoCon has been held in Koper, Slovenia (2005), Berlin, Germany (2004),
and Hamburg, Germany (2003). This year's conference is tentatively
scheduled for mid-September."
http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS5896179308.html
Report from OOo seminar in Dhaka, Bangladesh
--------------------------------------------
"Dear All,
I guess you missed the seminar for your busy schedule (it's far away,
:-D too). Anyway, it went very well. More then 50 people joined the
seminar; The number is too small but it was a start. I hope more
people in Bangladesh will join OpenOffice.org community gradually. :-)
John demonstrated the various features of OO.o 2.0; Regarding localization
efforts he presented the "Cambodian Case Study". The Cambodian group
working very well for last 2 years. Their driving force is their
Government, United Nation and some Good spirit dedicated workers.
By that combination they are progressing very fast thru Open Source.
Jamil Ahmed from Ankur presented some Bangla localized Open Source
applications including OpenOffice.org. Pointed out some important issues
we are facing, ie lack of volunteers, hardwares and funding as well.
After that some students of BRAC university told us that they are willing
to help us if they get proper guidance - which was great.
[...]
Pictures of the seminar: http://jamil.phpxperts.com/BracUni_OOo_Seminar/ "
(report by Mak, Bangladesh MarCon)"
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/report-from-ooo-seminar-in-dhaka.html
First Winner Developer Article Contest!
---------------------------------------
Cédric Bosdonnat has been chosen OpenOffice.org's first winner
of the monthly Developer Article Contest. Congratulations!
Cédric's winning entry related to work begun last summer, for
Google's Summer of Code, where he initiated development of an
Eclipse plugin for OpenOffice.org. (A brief interview of Cédric
can be found at http:// www.openoffice.org/editorial/cbosdonnat.htm.)
The Developer Article Contest continues each month, so if you want
to try your hand, you have a fresh chance now. Winners receive
USD $750 plus invaluable attention and the gratification of helping others.
Read our document on the matter for more information and start writing!
The next deadline is the end of this month.
C. Bosdonnat's Winning Article
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/JavaEclipseTuto
Developer Article Contest
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org_Developer_Article_Contest
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/first-winner-developer-article-contest.html
FSM: The latest episode in the Office Wars
------------------------------------------
"Ho-hum, no mention of Microsoft's point blank refusal to support Open
Document, which is supported by most other word processing programs out
there and was created for the purpose. There is also no mention that
Microsoft's so called "standard format" includes the ability to put
proprietary binary strings into the file (using the "BinData" tag I
believe). This somewhat places a spanner in the works as far as complete
interoperability is concerned.
In the same newsletter, in fact his main point in it, he mentioned
Microsoft's statement that "OpenOffice.org was 10 years behind Microsoft
Office", of which he says "flushed out the usual anti-Microsoft
suspects". Being independent, he does mention that this statement was
probably only used for the headline value. He also claims that although
MS Office is ahead of OpenOffice.org, it is probably not by ten years.
He also mentions that many people don't use the newer features, but then
expands to say they probably would find them useful if they took the
time to learn them. He provides a link, which is to an interview with
Microsoft's Alan Yates on this subject. In this, as far as I can see,
Alan says that MS-Office is worth the $500 or so license fee as opposed
to none from OpenOffice.org because:
1. There are less backward compatible issues.
2. There is no email client with OpenOffice.org.
3. The new ribbon technology is more intuitive and there are other
GUI changes.
My answers to these points are:
1. The back compatibility argument, to me, is an argument for why
people should drop Microsoft Office at the first available opportunity.
If a company locks people into a solution by shirking open standards and
sticking to their own proprietary ones they deserve obliteration.
2. What is a specific email client doing in an office suite? Surely
the best thing would be to support an inter-operable environment so that
any email client can be used. Why lock people into a specific one?
3. It is rumored that the ribbon technology was not asked for by the
users, and that it is simply an attempt to get some "clear blue water"
between MS Office and others like OpenOffice.org. The jury is out on
this and it hardly makes a gap of "10 years" either."
http://blog.freesoftwaremagazine.com/users/e.macnaghten/2006/03/10/office_wars
'We translated a browser in a weekend into Xhosa'
-------------------------------------------------
"The head of the open-source software translation project
Translate.org.za, Dwane Bailey, this week called on civil society to
help localise software and push proprietary firms to do likewise. He was
speaking at the Sangonet ICTs for Civil Society conference in Johannesburg.
Translate.org.za recently completed translating OpenOffice.org 2.0 into
South Africa's 11 official languages -- a major achievement that Bailey
believes is prompting proprietary firms like Microsoft to look more
closely at the needs of non-English speakers. "I do believe that helped
stimulate the proprietary industry to start localising their software,"
he says."
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__business/&articleid=266330
2005 LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Award Winners Announced
--------------------------------------------------------------
"Office Suite of the Year - OpenOffice.org (84.84%)"
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/3/prweb355339.htm
EU Ponders Antitrust Probe of Microsoft Office
----------------------------------------------
"If you're enjoying the European Union's (EU's) current antitrust
proceedings against Microsoft, grab some popcorn and pull up an easy
chair, because it looks like they're coming back for a sequel. EU
competition commissioner Neelie Kroes said this week that the EU is now
considering whether it should probe Microsoft's Office software to
determine whether it violates EU antitrust law.
The EU preliminary investigation began when a group representing IBM,
Oracle, Sun Microsystems, and six other companies complained to the EU
that Microsoft was unfairly hiding various technical aspects of Office,
which prevents them from creating solutions that interoperate with
Office. This is a concern because Microsoft Office commands 95 percent
of the office productivity market and is therefore the de facto standard
for word processing, spreadsheets, and other common business tasks. "
http://www.windowsitpro.com/windowspaulthurrott/Article/ArticleID/49614/windowspaulthurrott_49614.html
StarOffice 8: Office Killer?
----------------------------
"Pointing them to such free solutions also helps to crystallize the idea
of open formats and applications. The OpenDocument format support by
StarOffice, and the free OpenOffice.org on which it is based, are just
more examples of why you should use this software. In a few years time I
find it likely that many different applications will be offering
OpenDocument support, and even if OpenOffice.org and StarOffice fail,
the use of a standard document format means that new applications and
developers can step into the market without having to redevelop the
wheel that is Office file compatibility.
If I have one criticism of StarOffice it is that the application is so
like Microsoft Office that many will fail to see the difference. While
file compatibility is one thing, virtually duplicating the look and feel
of an application is another. I am not entirely sure it is the right
approach, but I appreciate that to compete with Office we should have an
application that is as simple and easy to use as the suite we are replacing.
Even with this minor complaint, I cannot really fault StarOffice 8 as an
effective Office Suite. StarOffice 8 is available on a 30-day evaluation
basis and is certainly worth investigating."
http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reviews/6194/1/
Tips & Tricks
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Creating an e-wallet with Base
------------------------------------
Using Base you can easily build a database for storing personal data
such as passwords, software and hardware serial numbers, PIN codes, etc.
This article shows you how to overcome the two challenges of creating
such a solution, namely storing disparate data, and securing access to it.
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/creating-e-wallet-with-base.html
Finding hidden treasures in OpenOffice 2.0's Charting Wizard
------------------------------------------------------------
"The chart features in OpenOffice are kind of like a mystery-lover's
dream vacation: a huge, mysterious old house with lots of long halls and
secret bookcases.
Now, I realize that all this mystery can be extremely annoying if you
don't have three months to enjoy solving the Mystery of the Disappearing
Statistics Tab. Fortunately, even though much of the power of OpenOffice
charts is hidden, it's not too much of a hassle to figure out the basics
of how to get there. It's just a matter of clicking on what you want.
And clicking again -- and again, if necessary. That's the most important
thing, and what I'm focusing on the most: how to click on the right
thing so you get the options you need in order to make the changes you
need to make. Plus a few other helpful hints like where the modification
tools are (many convenient locations near you) and a little setup support.
So, here's my guide to the not-quite-wildly-obvious charting tools in
OpenOffice 2.0. If you're already an expert looking for power tips to
get you to the next level or provide you more experience points, this
isn't for you. If charts are driving you crazy and you want to know how
to modify them and make them behave, then this will be helpful."
http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid39_gci1171394,00.html
OOo Off the Wall: That's Your Version--Document Control in OOo Writer
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"Learn how to use Writer's version control tools to keep track of who
made which changes and when, without diving into big CMS applications."
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8911
Desktop publishing with Writer and Scribus
------------------------------------------
"Although OpenOffice.org Writer offers many tools that allow you to
create sophisticated layouts, you might want to use a dedicated desktop
publishing application to lay out a brochure or a book. The latest
version of the open source DTP application Scribus, 1.3.2, can import
Writer's .odt documents, which makes Writer and Scribus a perfect combo
for DTP work. Here's a brief overview of Scribus' essential tools and
features from Writer users' point of view.
...
Conclusion
Scribus may feel like uncharted territory for many Writer users, but
it's pretty easy to come to grips with, and many Writer skills can be
translated to Scribus. Of course, both applications have their strengths
and weak spots, but combined they provide a powerful end-to-end
publishing solution."
http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/02/21/2152219
OpenDocument News Roundup
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Microsoft joins OpenDocument group
----------------------------------
"Pamela Jones, who runs legal Web site Groklaw, speculated that
Microsoft may have joined the group to sabotage the ratification of ODF,
hoping to give its rival standard a chance to catch up. Last year,
Microsoft submitted its Office Open XML file formats to European
standards body ECMA International, as a prelude to seeking ISO
standardisation later.
"There sits Microsoft, waiting, like a spider," Jones wrote in a posting
on her site. "I am imagining ODF plodding along, with Microsoft asking
questions, fine-combing through the comments, 'did you mean this or
that?', getting bogged down in minutia until, lo and behold, either
Microsoft's XML makes it as an ISO standard first, or they arrive neck
and neck."
But Microsoft denied this accusation, saying that the only reason why
Microsoft employee Jim Thatcher joined the group was to get involved in
the ISO standardisation of its own file format."
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Microsoft_joins_OpenDocument_group/0,2000061733,39248386,00.htm
Open Source Academy Launches 'Certified Open'
---------------------------------------------
"A new programme for gauging the ‘openness’ of IT solutions has been
unveiled for UK local government by Open Source Academy – the consortium
backed by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister through the
e-Innovations programme.
Called Certified Open, the new programme will ensure that local
government IT managers will be able to make informed procurement
decisions based upon the openness of products, services and staff, which
have been assessed against an open framework.
...
Certified Open is the latest step taken by the Open Source Academy,
which is funded under the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's (ODPM)
e-Innovations programme, to encourage local authorities to make more use
of open source software systems, such as Linux, StarOffice and
OpenOffice, as well as for locally developed applications."
http://www.linuxelectrons.com/article.php/20060328003300500
UK Group Develops 'Openness' Test to Help Council Buyers
--------------------------------------------------------
"A new program for gauging the openness of IT solutions has been
unveiled for UK local government by Open Source Academy -- a consortium
backed by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister through the
e-Innovations program.
Called Certified Open, the new program will ensure that local government
IT managers will be able to make informed procurement decisions based
upon the openness of products, services and staff that have been
assessed against an open framework."
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/AJEM3Jwr3JCUgr/UK-Group-Develops-Openness-Test-to-Help-Council-Buyers.xhtml
Open Source Migration, COSPA
----------------------------
"To respond to these issues, COSPA developed extensive documentation and
user manuals for OpenOffice, a free, open-source word processor,
presentation program, database and spreadsheet and one of the key
reasons for transferring to OSS.
The user guides earned a lot of respect and attracted a lot of interest.
"We produced versions of this documentation for each country involved in
the project. But PAs and other organisations in other countries have
asked for help translating these materials into their language, and of
course we were happy to help them with that," says Russo. COSPA also
developed a knowledge base, which contains a large range of data about
OSS to aid PAs in the transition to open source."
http://www.technologynewsdaily.com/node/2312
Why Free Standards Matter
-------------------------
" Imagine you live on a sleepy street in a coastal town, say Rio de
Janeiro. And a hurricane or tsunami hits your shores. And the government
agency responsible for telling you how and where to get relief, for
provisioning aid and emergency services, sends out a curious message: if
you can't afford a copy of Microsoft Windows, we're sorry, we can't help
you.
That's exactly what happened in New Orleans a few months back. Which led
many folks to see the convergence of telecommunications, technology and
media in a very personal, and dissatisfying way - while demonstrating
the vanishing distinction between web services, social services and
emergency services. The network is all about moving data around, whether
purchase orders, tax forms or storm paths.
...
And to put our money where our mouths are, the first application to
fully support ODF is the world's most popular free/open source office
productivity suite, OpenOffice - which we encourage governments to
distribute to their citizens. There's no better way to serve the
public's interest than to give them freedom."
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/jonathan/20060309
Coming to Your Desktop Soon: Clash of the Titans
------------------------------------------------
"You can blame several technologies and cross-currents on this including
XML, the cost of office software, and open source efforts to provide
vendor independence, predictability, and peer-review to assure quality
products. The first shot in this battle came from Massachusetts, ever
famous for its feistiness, which started centuries ago with the Boston
Tea Party. In September, the Massachusetts secretary of Administration
and Finance, Eric Kriss, described how important to the commonwealth it
is for office documents to be "open," conforming to standards. He listed
three criteria for openness. First, the standards must have no or
absolutely minimal legal restrictions. The standards must be published.
And those standards must be subject to peer review. Specifically,
Massachusetts supported the OASIS "OpenDocument" standard and, by
implication, office systems like Sun's StarOffice and OpenOffice that
implement that standard. I admit it: when I first saw this news I
thought, "There they go again." Then I read that Indonesia's Ministry of
Research and Technology was also leaning towards OpenDocument, as are
many members of the European Union. Wait, maybe this isn't just a
localized rebellion.
...
With U.S. states and several foreign countries strongly considering that
same alternative, OpenOffice (and products built on it) warrant a second
look. OpenOffice also offers some non-XML capabilities that are
compelling in their own right: one-click PDF export, the ability to save
presentations or drawings to Flash format, the ability through an
ActiveX control to view MS Office documents in a browser window,
WordPerfect and Microsoft filters, and the list goes on . . . all
available in more than 30 languages and major computing platforms. And
the XML story is even better. OpenOffice supports the XML standard for
forms, XForms, and can take advantage of other XML standards such as SVG
or Dublin Core. Open Source is coming out and the outcome of this battle
will affect all of us, and our office content, for years to come."
http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/ArticleReader.aspx?ArticleID=15110&ContextSubtypeID=9
Special: Defending Openness
---------------------------
"If Microsoft is allowed to continue with this ploy, “open" will
gradually become just another generic marketing term like “leading-edge"
or “user-friendly": a term that everyone uses and which no longer has
any real value.
This is potentially an extremely damaging strategy, since it is hard to
put back the power in a word once it has been drained away. Perhaps the
only response is constant and vocal rejection of anything the Microsoft
brands as “open" unless it is truly and completely open, through a
detailed repudiation of any false claims that it makes in this regard.
But this must be done now, not after Microsoft has muddied the
linguistic waters to such an extent that “open" no longer means
anything. If this threat is not dealt with swiftly and effectively, the
main use of the word “open" in computing one day might be by
anthropologists and historians as a quaint label for a sub-grouping in
the increasingly marginalized hacker culture."
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/55607/
Industry lines up behind OpenDocument format
--------------------------------------------
"The group includes key ODF vendor supporters, such as Sun Microsystems
Inc, IBM Corp, Novell Inc, and Corel Corp, as well as industry groups
such as the American Library Association, the Software & Information
Industry Association, and the Open Society Archives of the Central
European University."
http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=3AC28B57-CEED-4949-9059-1BD8988CA96A
Alliance Formed to Promote Improved Access to and Retrieval of
Electronic Government Documents
--------------------------------------------------------------
"The ODF Alliance was formed by a diverse coalition of more than 35
organizations from a wide range of countries around the world. The
Alliance membership includes: Adullact Association; American Library
Association; Ark Linux; The Association of Open Source Suppliers and
Vendors in Denmark; Centre for Development of Advanced Computing
(India); Cognitran Ltd; Corel Corporation; CSW Group Ltd; EDS; EMC
Corporation; Friends of OpenDocument, Inc.; GENICORP; Indian Institute
of Technology (IIT); Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for
the City of Vienna; IBM; Information Program, Open Society Institute;
International Open Source Network; Justsystem Corporation; Massachusetts
High Tech Council; Massachusetts Network Communications Council; Novell;
Open Society Archives of the Central European University (OSA Archivum);
OpenForum Europe; OpenDocument Fellowship; The OpenDocument Foundation,
Inc.; OpenOffice.org; Opera Software; Optaros, Inc.; Oracle Corporation;
OSS Alliance; Propylon Ltd; Red Hat, Inc.; Software & Information
Industry Association; Sun Microsystems; the Technical University of
Denmark and tarent GmbH."
http://www.govtech.net/magazine/channel_story.php/98653
Group Pushes for More Gov't ODF Use
-----------------------------------
"A group of over 35 organizations representing various associations,
academic institutions, industry and related groups said Friday they were
forming a group known as the ODF Alliance. The organization would aim to
promote improved access to government documents through use of the
OpenDocument Format.
The ODF Alliance asserts that storing documents in an open format would
ensure access across a variety of clients, as well as ensuring the
information can be accessed well into the future.
"With a broad cross section of support, the ODF Alliance will work to
enable governments around the world to have greater control over and
direct management of their documents, now and forever," said Ken Wasch,
President of the Software & Information Industry Association, an ODF
Alliance member."
http://www.betanews.com/article/Group_Pushes_for_More_Govt_ODF_Use/1141419171
OpenDocument vs. Office Open XML
--------------------------------
"And these are both "open" formats? That depends on what you mean by
"open." OpenDocument backers say their formats, unlike Microsoft's, were
developed collaboratively by multiple vendors and other groups, and are
maintained by OASIS, a neutral consortium. Basically, the OpenDocument
camp believes a standard format that isn't controlled by Microsoft—which
has more than a 95% share of the office applications market, according
to Gartner surveys of business users—will loosen the company's grip
since customers won't need to buy Microsoft Office to read or create
documents. "We have broken this control point at the document level,"
says Bob Sutor, IBM's vice president of standards."
http://www.publish.com/article2/0,1895,1933744,00.asp
Open source community needs a haircut and to dress for success
--------------------------------------------------------------
"Former Massachusetts Chief Information Officer Peter Quinn, who was
deeply involved of the OpenDocument vs. Microsoft format debate, has
some advice for the open source community. If you want to get traction
in commercial environments, lose the sandals and ponytails, Quinn said."
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/index.php?p=2780
Microsoft joins group key to ODF standards adoption
---------------------------------------------------
"In a move some think has the potential to stall the adoption of
OpenDocument Format (ODF) as an international standard, Microsoft has
joined a group that takes part in the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) voting process to standardize ODF.
Microsoft has joined the V1 Text Processing: Office and Publishing
Systems Interface group within the International Committee for
Information Technology Standards (INCITS), a Washington-based
organization. INCITS is involved in recommending what technologies
should become ISO standards, and the V1 Text Processing group in
particular deals with office document formats.
ODF is overseen by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured
Information Standards (OASIS) and is supported by Microsoft rivals IBM.
and Sun Microsystems, among other companies. They want to see ODF
adopted internationally as the standard for office documents and
software that creates and manages these documents, such as Microsoft's
popular Office suite and rivals such as Star Office from Sun. The
government of Massachusetts in the U.S. already has put in motion a plan
to migrate its documents to ODF from proprietary formats, a process it
hopes to implement beginning in January 2007."
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1794496952;fp;16;fpid;0
Microsoft's Nemesis – Michael Robertson – Strikes Again...With "ajaxWrite"
--------------------------------------------------------------
"According to Robertson, ajaxWrite can open Microsoft Word documents and
save them back to the Word.doc format. Theoretically that means they
would be salvageable in Microsoft's upcoming XML format, but let's see
if Microsoft delivers on its backward-compatibility promise. Robertson
is naturally hoping the world goes to the new Microsoft-upsetting
OpenDocument formats."
http://br.sys-con.com/read/198690.htm
Former Massachusets CIO vocal about open source
-----------------------------------------------
"Former Massachusetts state government CIO Peter Quinn believes that any
technology leader, in the public or private sector, who is not
supporting and implementing open standards should resign.
Quinn is the newest addition to the list of speakers at Linux World
scheduled to begin in Sydney tomorrow.
Speaking about the policy, planning and pragmatic reasons for the
Massachusetts move into open source, Quinn hopes to inspire CIOs to take
similar steps. He will trace his own journey as CIO of Massachusetts and
use real-life examples."
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/mgmt/98B8C259E9FD95CDCC25713B000BB039
Google steps into Office's domain
---------------------------------
"With Writely, you get an online wysiwyg word processor with built-in
storage. You can save to a range of formats including Word, PDF,
OpenDocument Format, and HTML. Best of all, the documents are fully
sharable so they become ad hoc collaborative knowledge management centres."
http://www.itweek.co.uk/itweek/comment/2152505/google-steps-office-domain
Standard Procedure
------------------
"As I continue to monitor the controversy over Massachusetts' plan to
adopt the OASIS OpenDocument format standard for office productivity
applications, I'm becoming increasingly concerned that Microsoft will
ultimately succeed in beating the state into submission. It's no secret
that the Microsoft lobbying machine has pulled out all the stops to
compel the state to abandon its initiative to adopt OpenDocument, a
standard Microsoft clearly sees as a serious competitive threat. And
given that Microsoft has virtually unlimited funds to throw at the
challenge, it's difficult to imagine that those within the state's IT
apparatus who continue to push the standard will prevail."
http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/story/0,10801,109633,00.html
XML In Government: Promise And Politics
---------------------------------------
"But such liberty doesn't always come easy. Just ask Peter Quinn, the
former CIO of Massachusetts. In 2005, Quinn and his team were tasked
with solving Massachusetts' data incompatibility problem and its
inability to share data stemming from years of technology being deployed
in silos across the state's executive branch. Quinn also wanted to
ensure that technology never separated public from government
information. Quinn's solution: OpenDocument format, an XML-based file
format for office applications sponsored by vendors such as IBM and Sun.
The format was standardized last year by the Organization for the
Advancement of Structured Information Standards.
"OpenDocument format, and applications that read it, are far more likely
to be available in 300 years when our great-grandchildren want to read
the electronic records we create today," Quinn said in testimony to the
Massachusetts Senate Post Audit and Oversight Committee in October.
"Furthermore, multiple office applications support ODF even today, so
citizens making public records requests will have a choice of office
applications when they read electronic public records created in that
format."
Quinn's team mandated that all executive branch documents be created and
stored in OpenDocument format by 2007. That decision wasn't well
received by Microsoft, which stands to lose millions of dollars in sales
of its proprietary Office licenses. Though Microsoft is working on its
own open-file format called Open XML for the 2007 version of Office, it
won't be ready in time for Massachusetts' adoption plan. What's more,
Microsoft will be the sole proprietor and developer of this format,
whereas the OpenDocument format is a collaborative work by vendors."
http://www.informationweek.com/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=183700357
McNealy pumps open standards, open source
-----------------------------------------
"McNealy, whose company pushes the open standards Java platform and
participates in the OpenDocument Format Alliance, recommended government
agencies buy commercial software built on open-source code, instead of
downloading open-source software and running it without commercial
support. The upside of software built on open code is that it allows
customers to change vendors without massive exit costs, he told the
audience."
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/0/FFBBEC97C6D273BFCC25713300705591?OpenDocument
Unfair promotion of vendor products by the CRTC
-----------------------------------------------
"There is a reference to .doc and to .xls files and links to
office.microsoft.com for help on how to view these files.
While I understand that these are popular file formats, I also
understand that these file formats are owned and controlled by a single
vendor, in this case Microsoft Corporation.
In advertising specific brands on the website, the CRTC is giving this
specific vendor an unfair competitive advantage over other firms that
provide spreadsheet and word processing systems.
The larger office productivity industry has come together to create
international standards for these file formats under the name of
OpenDocument. OpenDocument is not only a standard via OASIS
(Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards),
but was submitted by OASIS to the ISO/IEC JTC1 (International
Organization for Standardization International Electrotechnical
Commission's Joint Technical Committee)."
http://www.digital-copyright.ca/node/2015
KOffice 1.5—Time For A Test Ride
---------------------------------
" Besides other changes, KChart, the component of the suite that
facilitates drawing charts, has been overhauled. The application is now
powered by a new charting engine, and features support for the charting
OASIS OpenDocument file format.
The interfaces of the other components have been touched up, and better
support for OpenDocument formats has been incorporated. New features
have also been incorporated into Krita, KDE’s image management and
editing tool, and KPlato, which facilitates project management."
http://www.efytimes.com/fullnews.asp?edid=10764
TextMaker 2006 for Windows Service Pack
---------------------------------------
"As a member of the OpenDocument Format Alliance (odfalliance.org),
SoftMaker takes pride in its support of the OpenDocument file format:
TextMaker now reads OpenDocument files with high fidelity, and saving in
this format is being worked onby SoftMaker's developers right now."
http://www.mobilitysite.com/2006/03/textmaker_2006_for_windows_service_pack.php
Mass. Municipalities to Have an Opportunity to Assess ODF
---------------------------------------------------------
"One of the more bizarre, but less noticed threads in the OpenDocument
Format (ODF) story in Massachusetts involves whether or not the many
hundreds of municipalities in Massachusetts would be required to use
software that supported ODF, or at least be able to work with documents
created using such software when they interacted with State government."
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/newsblog/blog.php?ID=2129
KOffice ships v1.5 final beta
-----------------------------
"OASIS OpenDocument support in KChart, OpenDocument improvements in
KWord, KSpread, KPresenter, and Karbon -- KChart now has a new charting
engine and also adds support for loading and saving charts in the OASIS
OpenDocument file standard. KPresenter, KSpread, KWord and Karbon14 all
have received improvements and fixes to their OpenDocument code, the
project said."
http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS5288075258.html
New OASIS committee to push ODF
-------------------------------
"International standards body OASIS Tuesday announced the formation of
the ODF Adoption Committee, a body with one mission: to promote
widespread use of the OASIS Standard OpenDocument Format. The new
committee plans to improve demand for ODF-conforming products by
increasing public awareness of the benefits of open format documents.
This should eventually result in a greater choice of tools and
platforms, and in expanding the ODF community of users, suppliers, and
developers, OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured
Information Standards) said.
To accomplish its mission, the new committee will be overseeing the
creation of white papers, FAQs, overview documents, case studies, and
other educational materials to be distributed to corporations and the
media. The group will serve as a community-building resource by
providing ODF information through the OASIS and XML.org websites,
collateral, newsletters, webinars, conferences, and other outreach venues."
http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS2309917860.html
Justsystems Participates in ODF Alliance as Founding Member; Actively
Contributing to Dissemination of a Global Standard, XML Format
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"Justsystems, Inc. today announced the company's participation as a
founding member of the ODF Alliance, which was established in
Washington, DC, on March 3.
The ODF Alliance was formed for the dissemination of Oasis Open Document
Format for Office Applications (ODF), a type of XML-based Office
software. ODF is standardized by the Organization for the Advancement of
Structured Information Standards (OASIS), an organization that supports
the standardization of technology used in the exchange of business
information.
Justsystems is the only corporation from Japan to participate in the
Alliance, which was formed by 35 companies and organizations worldwide
including, Corel Corporation, IBM, Novell, OpenForum Europe, Oracle
Corporation, RedHat, Inc., the Software & Information Industry
Association (SIIA) and Sun Microsystems.
The full-fledged spread of ODF is expected to encourage a dramatic
increase in information storage and exchange by corporations and
governments, thereby realizing more global business activities and a
more affluent living environment.
Having long offered advanced and user-friendly computer applications,
Justsystems will launch modules designed for the OpenDocument-format XML
beginning this summer, for Ichitaro 2006, which was released in February."
http://www.acnnewswire.net/article.asp?Art_ID=31344&lang=
Office Formats, Accessibility and Politics: Caveat Legislator
-------------------------------------------------------------
"Microsoft has not historically been an innovator in ensuring
accessibility, although it has made accommodations in response to
customer requirements, including those imposed by the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts. In fact, few of the tools used by the community of the
disabled have been developed by Microsoft. Instead, they have been
developed by small ISVs, and are sold (at significant cost) as add-ons
to Windows-based systems. And, rather than making it easy for these ISVs
to solve customer accessibility problems for Microsoft customers,
Microsoft has been criticized for making their task more difficult."
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/newsblog/blog.php?ID=2110
Governments, Users and Providers of Office Applications Unite to Advance
Adoption of OpenDocument Format (ODF) OASIS Standard
----------------------------------------------------------------
" Support for ODF Adoption
IBM
"The community effort to accelerate the adoption of the OpenDocument
Format around the world will be greatly enhanced by the work of this new
OASIS ODF Adoption Technical Committee," said Dr. Bob Sutor, Vice
President, Standards and Open Source, IBM. "We at IBM look forward to
working hand-in-hand with others in the industry who believe as we do
that the OpenDocument Format will provide a revolutionary and long
overdue positive effect on innovation around the creation and use of
office documents."
Novell
"History has repeatedly shown that widespread adoption of a technology
standard leads to greater value-added technical innovation and presents
new opportunities for business," said Markus Rex, chief technology
officer, Open Source and Platforms for Novell. "The Internet is the best
example of this. Promoting the adoption of ODF as a standard will lead
to similar innovation in office applications. Novell is firmly committed
to open standards and working within OASIS to promote ODF. We are
helping customers maximize their investment through choice and flexibility."
Oracle
"Oracle believes open standards provide the best way to create and
evolve sustainable IT ecosystems," said Don Deutsch, vice president of
Standards Strategy and Architecture, Oracle. "Encouraging adoption of
the OASIS OpenDocument Format standard is an excellent way to highlight
the benefits of standards that promote choice and provide users with the
necessary flexibility to use their critical documents independent of any
particular application or enterprise platform."
Sun Microsystems
"As an advocate and supporter of open standards and open source, Sun
recognizes the importance of choice, innovation and access to
information. Companies that share technologies and collaborate on open
standards create new markets in which everyone can participate and no
one is excluded - which is why Sun originally donated the know-how that
started the OASIS OpenDocument Technical Committee, granted a perpetual
covenant to free the specification for all, and is now fueling the OASIS
ODF Adoption Committee. As an active OASIS member and as a founding
member of both the OpenDocument TC and the ODF Adoption Committee, Sun
will continue to provide its expertise to help ensure the success of the
OpenDocument Format," said Eduardo Gutentag, Technology Director -
Corporate Standards, Sun Microsystems, Inc."
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20060307005634&newsLang=en
New OpenDocument alliance could've helped MA CIO
------------------------------------------------
"If such a body had existed last year, it's possible the organization
could have provided much needed support to an embattled U.S. chief
information officer (CIO), Wasch said in a phone interview Thursday.
In September of last year, Massachusetts CIO Peter Quinn finalized a
policy for state agencies to develop a gradual plan for migration to
OpenDocument, beginning Jan. 1, 2007. The plan would involve phasing out
the state's use of Microsoft Corp.'s Office software suite. With
Massachusetts one of the very first U.S. states to espouse such a
decision, the move placed Quinn under intense public scrutiny and
political pressure.
Quinn quit his job in early January after becoming in his own words "a
lightning rod" with respect to any IT initiative under consideration by
the Commonwealth. "A tragedy happened in Massachusetts," Simon Phipps,
chief open source officer at Sun, said in a phone interview Thursday.
"Cynicism allowed a good man to be hounded out of his job for no reason."
Quinn's permanent replacement Louis Gutierrez has already pledged to
continue the state's move towards OpenDocument.
If a similar situation was to occur now, the ODF alliance would help to
support a CIO with white papers and case studies of successful ODF
adoptions as ammunition to counter any naysayers, according to Wasch.
One of the alliance's missions is to "remove the FUD [fear, uncertainty
and doubt] factor of adopting OpenDocument," he said."
http://www.cio.com.au/index.php/id;1654115010;fp;4;fpid;21
Irish OpenDocument Format Alliance
----------------------------------
"Propylon CTO Sean McGrath added “Truly open XML-based file format for
office documents is the key to information longevity. Longevity is
naturally a key concern for the public sector in Ireland as it is
throughout the world. We have been proactive supports of ODF in Ireland
and internationally for a considerable period of time and look forward
to contributing to this important initiative.”
The ODF Alliance was formed by a diverse coalition of more than 35
organizations from a wide range of countries around the world companies
participating include Propylon, Sun Microsystems, IBM, Oracle, Novell,
EDS. More information about the Alliance is available on the Alliance
webs site at: http://www.odfalliance.org";
http://www.irishdev.com/NewsArticle.aspx?id=2118
Clippings
#########################################################################
* No Thick Manuals Announces Publication of the Writer For Writers Book
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/no-thick-manuals-announces-publication.html
* Microsoft to Delay Office 2007 With Vista
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/microsoft-to-delay-office-2007-with.html
* Open Government 2006, 10 April 2006, Prague
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/open-government-2006-10-april-2006.html
* Opensourcepal Contest Results
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/opensourcepal-contest-results.html
* Microsoft Joins INCITS V1
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/microsoft-joins-incits-v1.html
* No books out on Open XML Formats development
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/no-books-out-on-open-xml-formats.html
* Microsoft delays consumer launch of Windows Vista
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/microsoft-delays-consumer-launch-of.html
* Robin Miller: How OpenOffice 2.0 stacks up against Microsoft Office
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/robin-miller-how-openoffice-20-stacks.html
* Is Powerpoint Generic Yet?
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/is-powerpoint-generic-yet.html
* Worldlabel.com Releases Openoffice.org Draw and a4 Size Label Templates
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/worldlabelcom-releases-openofficeorg.html
* Google snaps up Writely
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/google-snaps-up-writely.html
* Linux desktop adoption barriers: Microsoft Office may out-feature
OpenOffice, but...
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/linux-desktop-adoption-barriers.html
* Google has acquired Writerly
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/google-has-acquired-writerly.html
* Microsoft: Office '10 years ahead' of OpenOffice: reactions
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/microsoft-office-10-years-ahead-of.html
* OpenOffice Is 10 Years Behind MS Office? That's Fine!
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/openoffice-is-10-years-behind-ms.html
* Join the OOo Conference in Lillestrom, Norway, next week!
http://www2.mrfylke.no/it/oo-seminar.nsf/Hoved?OpenFrameset
* Microsoft says Open Office.org 10 years behind; we say several
hundreds dollars an office suite is so nineties...
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/microsoft-says-open-officeorg-10-years.html
* How disruptive will Microsoft Office 2007 be?
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/how-disruptive-will-microsoft-office.html
Statistics
#########################################################################
* More than 59,900,000 have downloaded OpenOffice.org so far
(as of 11 March 2006).
* The OpenOffice.org project has about 35,000 unique people
subscribed to the mailing lists (as of 11 March 2006).
* 716 people and companies have signed a JCA and are thus either already
contributing or considering to do so (as of 27 March 2006):
http://www.openoffice.org/copyright/copyrightapproved.html
* More than 550,000 people completed the user survey since the launch of
OpenOffice.org 2.0 on October 20, 2005 (as of 27 March 2006).
Events
#########################################################################
Upcoming
========
LinuxWorld Boston
Boston, MA, USA
4-6 April 2006
http://www.linuxworldexpo.com
LinuxWorld San Francisco
San Francisco, CA, USA
15-17 August 2006
http://www.linuxworldexpo.com
Event Details
=============
LinuxWorld Expo Boston 4-6 April
--------------------------------
OpenOffice.org will be having a booth (#139) at this April's
LinuxWorld Expo Boston and you are invited! You are also invited to
help out. We need booth beings, artwork, clever presentations
showcasing OpenOffice.org, and any other kind of moral, monetary, or
vocal support you can offer. This event is of some importance, for it
is taking place in what is widely perceived as the epicentre--Boston--
of the U.S. public sector move to using the open standard file format
OpenOffice.org uses, the OASIS OpenDocument Format, or ODF. The old-
but-powerful stick-in-the-mud elements have been resisting mightily,
but the forces for freedom, open standards, and superior technology
are advancing, and Massachusetts is still scheduled to adopt the ODF
January 1, 2007. But nothing is absolutely certain.
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=announce&msgNo=277
Open Source Conference 2006 Tokyo/Spring
----------------------------------------
Next Friday and Saturday Japanese N-L project members will participate
in Open Source Conference 2006 Tokyo/Spring in Tokyo, Japan. This
conference started 3 years ago and was held many times in various
locations in Japan every year. The participants increase year by year
and I predict the number of participants of this time come to be over
thousand people.
We, of course, set a booth and distribute CDs which includes the latest
version (2.0.2rc4) OpenOffice.org. Two companies, Wiseknot
(http://www.wiseknot.co.jp/) and OSRI
(http://www.osri.co.jp/modules/tinyd0/), donate some money for CDs to
us. I kindly appreciate their donation.
In addition, Mr.Kamataki (our project member) will give a seminar about
"form" functions of OpenOffice.org and I will chair the meeting of BOF
for OpenOffice.org users.
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/03/open-source-conference-2006.html
Newsletter Archive
#########################################################################
Past issues of the OpenOffice.org Newsletter can be found in the archive
of the announce mailing list:
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/SummarizeList?listName=announce
Contact Information (regarding this newsletter)
#########################################################################
newsletter@marketing.openoffice.org
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