#########################################################################
OPENOFFICE.ORG NEWSLETTER
Volume 04 - Issue 2 - 08/2006
Please send news clippings to:
newsletter@marketing.openoffice.org
#########################################################################
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_08_01_ooonewsletter_archive.html
ATOM feed:
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/atom.xml
#########################################################################
Contents
#########################################################################
1. Announcements
----------------
* OpenOffice.org Conference 2006 (Lyon, France, 11-13 September 2006)
2. Success Stories
------------------
* Extremadura completely switches to Linux and OpenDocument
* OpenOffice.org fighting crime
* Dutch City of "Den Haag" (The Hague) will evaluate OpenOffice.org
adoption
3. Featured News
----------------
* OpenOffice.org Georgian Localization Summercamp
* OpenOffice.org is available in the ten most spoken languages in the
world
* Information Technology Promotion Agency of Japan's Interest in OOo
* "Report: Use ODF, Save 550 Million"
4. Tips & Tricks
----------------
* New XForms tutorial by J. David Eisenberg
* Solved! Converting an OpenOffice.org Calc Sheet to OOBase
* OpenOffice.org API Development (Geertjan's Weblog)
5. OpenDocument News Roundup
6. Clippings
7. Events
All news for this month can be found at:
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006_06_01_ooonewsletter_archive.html
#########################################################################
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
#########################################################################
Announcements
#########################################################################
OpenOffice.org Conference 2006 (Lyon, France, 11-13 September 2006)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
"All this has made OpenOffice.org, both the project and product, one
of the most important forces in software history. Come to the
conference to learn what governments, businesses, and developers are
planning for the future. Come to hear keynotes by chief
representatives of Novell, IBM, Sun, Google, and Ars Aperta speak on
OpenOffice.org and its democratic file format, the OpenDocument
Format. Come to see the new technologies, services, and information
being exhibited by our sponsors, including Insa, CUsoon, IBM, Sun,
Intel, NeoOffice, GrandLyon, Ville de Lyon, O3 Spaces, Google, and SCAI.
Or just come for the fun. OOoCon is known for its conviviality and
for the interesting people it brings together. There is no other
event like it. We hope to see you there!"
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=announce&msgNo=297
Success Stories
#########################################################################
Extremadura completely switches to Linux and OpenDocument
---------------------------------------------------------
"A Linux distribution called gnuLinEx, which was developed in-house
as a derivative of Debian, will be used as the operating system. In
addition, freely available office applications running on Open Source
licenses will be used. All of the staff in the administration are
obligated to use the ISO standards ODF and PDF/A to share and archive
documents."
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/76219
OpenOffice.org fighting crime
-----------------------------
“The Crime Mapping & Analysis Program (CMAP), located at the University
of Denver, National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center
announces the release of the Crime Analysis Unit (CAU) Developer's Kit.
The Kit is a unique collection of documents, tools and examples to assist
in the design, creation, implementation and expansion of any crime
analysis unit. This assembly of information, examples and software
utilities is a free public service by CMAP, a program of the National
Institute of Justice. The CAU Developer's Kit contains several free
software applications, including Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
programs, Geographic profiling utilities, tactical crime analysis tools,
link-charting programs, Statistics programs and OpenOffice.”
http://www.govtech.net/magazine/channel_story.php/100679
Dutch City of "Den Haag" (The Hague) will evaluate OpenOffice.org adoption
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
According to the article below the Dutch City of "Den Haag" (The Hague)
will evaluate adopting OpenOffice.org. The city did not renew their
contracts with Microsoft and have been paying 314 Euros per desktop.
http://www.webwereld.nl/articles/42640/den-haag-overweegt-overstap-op-openoffice-org.html
Featured News
#########################################################################
OpenOffice.org Georgian Localization Summercamp
-----------------------------------------------
"During 6 days the group of 30 participants and organizers localized
the whole user interface and majority of user assistance messages.
The QA will be accomplished with cooperation of OpenOffice.org
Georgian NL project and Deer Leap Foundation, a school computerization
programme by Georgian Ministry of Education and Science.
As a result, OpenOffice.org will be distributed to all Georgian
schools, where all students will get a chance to get used to FLOSS
products from the first beginning of their study."
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/08/news-from-georgian-native-lang-project_28.html
OpenOffice.org is available in the ten most spoken languages in the world
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"While you can use OpenOffice.org in more than 80 languages (with
localized versions varying in quality and status), it is interesting
to note that with the latest developments taking place inside the Bengali
Team, OpenOffice.org is now available in the ten most spoken languages
in the world."
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/08/openofficeorg-is-available-in-ten-most.html
Information Technology Promotion Agency of Japan's Interest in OOo
------------------------------------------------------------------
"We, the leads of the Native Language Confederation, would like to
thank the Information Technology Promotion Agency of Japan (IPA) for
proposing a study of OpenOffice.org. The study would focus on enhancing
OpenOffice.org's usefulness for the Japanese user. It represents a major
step toward the Japanese adoption of OpenOffice.org, the world's leading
open-source and open-standards-based office suite."
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/08/information-technology-promotion.html
"Report: Use ODF, Save 550 Million"
-----------------------------------
"The Open Source Business Association Rambøll Management estimates
that the whole of government (including local government) could save
550 million kroner by migrating to OpenOffice.org and ODF. That’s
around 94 million US Dollars. Quite a lot of money for a small country
like Denmark."
http://gotze.eu/2006/08/report-use-odf-save-550-million.html
Tips & Tricks
#########################################################################
New XForms tutorial by J. David Eisenberg
-----------------------------------------
J. David Eisenberg just published a new tutorial-like article about
using XForms within OpenOffice.org.
http://books.evc-cit.info/xforms_ooo_06_08_15.odt
Solved! Converting an OpenOffice.org Calc Sheet to OOBase
---------------------------------------------------------
"I had developed a fairly hefty OpenOffice.org Calc sheet, which was
great for quickly entering data I've been working with lately. However,
it soon became clear that a switch to OOBase would be necessary. I'm not
a big user of Base, so wasn't sure how best to go about converting my
data. Fortunately, a tutorial Tom Boyd had written showed me just how
simple it is. Even so, I discovered a 'gotchya' along the way."
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/68327/
OpenOffice.org API Development (Geertjan's Weblog)
--------------------------------------------------
http://blogs.sun.com/geertjan/entry/openoffice_org_api
http://blogs.sun.com/geertjan/entry/openoffice_org_api_part_2
http://blogs.sun.com/geertjan/entry/openoffice_org_api_part_3
http://blogs.sun.com/geertjan/entry/openoffice_org_api_and_spreadsheet
http://blogs.sun.com/geertjan/entry/openoffice_org_api_and_diagram
http://blogs.sun.com/geertjan/entry/openoffice_org_via_web_start
OpenDocument News Roundup
#########################################################################
Open collaborative formula definition for ODF
---------------------------------------------
"The development is very focused in specific areas and representatives
from implementors are working together to create a specification that
will withstand the tests of time. Representatives include heavy-weights
like Dan Bricklin, co-creator of the spreadsheet, Rob Weir from
IBM/Lotus 1-2-3 (the spreadsheet that became ubiquitous),
Dr. Andreas J. Guelzow and Jody Goldberg from Gnumeric, David Faure and
Tomas Mecir from KDE's KOffice, and Eike Rathke for OpenOffice.org and
Sun's StarOffice."
http://technocrat.net/d/2006/8/23/7103
"Math You Can't Use"
--------------------
“Now if Microsoft had merely wanted to create a proprietary format
for equations and use that in Word in order to trap their customers
onto that platform, then I'd simply say that's not my concern and
I'd blog about my heirloom tomatoes or something else. But when
this shows up in a nominally open standard destined for approval
by ISO, then this raises my eyebrows a little. The obvious choice
would have been to simply reuse MathML. So, why are they creating,
and standardizing a whole new math markup language? Are there no
standards worth reusing? Will XPS replace PDF, VML replace SVG,
Windows Media Photo format replace PNG, OMML replace MathML, and
OOXML replace ODF? Let's say "No" to OMML and "Yes" to MathML, the
math you can use.”
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2006/08/math-you-cant-use.html
"Follow the Leader"
-------------------
“As the following table shows, Excel formulas have never been
publicly specified, even though Microsoft has been producing file
format documentation for various binary, HTML, XHTML and XML Excel
formats for over 9 years. It was only after the ODF TC decided to
document our spreadsheet formulas and formed a Subcommittee to do
so that Ecma TC45 decided to follow.
...
Now I ask you, who is rushing? ODF took 2 ? years to standardize
700 pages. Microsoft is trying to standardize a 6,000 page behemoth
in just 1 year. I think the argument that ODF was rushed through
under political pressure just doesn't stand up to even cursory
examination. Honestly, I think this FUD is being spread around as
a smoke screen to hide the fact that OOXML is the one that is
really being rushed.”
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2006/08/follow-leader.html
"Throwing stones at people in glass houses"
-------------------------------------------
“Ecma TC45, the committee producing Office Open XML (OOXML), does
not operate in a transparent manner. They do not have a public mailing
list archive. They have not published their meeting minutes. The
comments they receive from the public are not open for the public to
read. The public has no idea what exactly the TC is working on, what
issues they think are critical, whether the TC is in unanimous
agreement, whether there is spirited debated or whether Microsoft
dominates and decides everything.”
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2006/07/throwing-stones-at-people-in-glass.html
"Cum mortuis in lingua mortua"
------------------------------
“I will not comment on its quality or merits, but merely note that it
was rejected by the W3C in favor of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
specification which became a W3C Recommendation (that's what the W3C
calls their standards) in 2001. Since then, SVG 1.0 was upgraded to
SVG 1.1. in 2003 and several mobile profiles (SVG Tiny and SVG Basic)
were created. SVG has native support in Firefox and Opera, with Plugins
available for most other browsers. There is support on mobile phones
and PDA's. A search of Amazon.com shows 19 books dedicated to SVG.
The SVGOpen Conference has been going for 5 years strong. This all
adds up to SVG being an established, open standard, widely implemented
with a thriving implementor/user community and signs of continued
innovation. It is a standard with a past, a present and a future.
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2006/07/cum-mortuis-in-lingua-mortua.html
IBM Accessibility ODF Coding Challenge 2006
-------------------------------------------
http://www-306.ibm.com/able/contest/
"Call for Asia to adopt ODF"
----------------------------
"An official from the United Nations (U.N.) has called for countries
in the Asia-Pacific region to embrace the OpenDocument format.
...
In the Philippines, there is no official policy on the adoption of ODF
in the country, according to Peter Antonio Banzon, division chief of
the Philippines' Advanced Science & Technology Institute, although the
government agency has already standardized its internal documents on
the ODF.
...
For instance, he noted that WordStar was a popular word processor used
in the 1980s. But the software is no longer supported by any vendor,
and it will be difficult to retrieve information stored in WordStar
documents today.
...
Abraham welcomed this move by Microsoft, and pointed out that an ODF
plug-in for Microsoft Office will strengthen the case for governments
to standardize on ODF."
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,39380446,00.htm
Why open standards and multiple implementations matter
------------------------------------------------------
"ODF is similar to JPEG. It's an open ISO standard and is already
supported by multiple implementations including free open source
solutions. Thus, even if one implementation disappeared or went into
a completely different direction, there still would be multiple
options to choose from."
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/why_open_standards_and_multiple
Accessibility ODF Coding Challenge
----------------------------------
"As I've said before, it is a full-time job these days keeping up with
programming contests. In many cases, these contests are self-serving, at
least for the sponsor. In other cases, they're worthwhile and beneficial.
I'd classify IBM's just announced Accessibility ODF Coding Challenge as
the latter."
http://www.ddj.com/blog/portal/archives/2006/08/programming_con_1.html
Massachusetts Forges Ahead With ODF Implementations
---------------------------------------------------
"In the mid-year statement on ODF released on Wednesday, Massachusetts
Chief Information Officer Louis Gutierrez said that the implementation
will use translator technology plugged into Microsoft Office. Select
"early adopter agencies" will include the Massachusetts Office on
Disability.
"Thereafter, we plan to migrate all Executive Department agencies to
compliance with the standard, in phases, by June of 2007," he said.
That schedule could change based on many factors, including adoption
by OASIS of the ODF Version 1.1 proposed standard. That standard
addresses minor accessibility issues in the translators, Gutierrez
wrote. "
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=192300284&subSection=All+Stories
Clippings
#########################################################################
* Danish Company Integrates CAD Drawings into OOo
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/08/danish-company-integrates-cad-drawings.html
* Extentions! Major Topic at OOoCon Lyon
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006/08/extentions-major-topic-at-ooocon-lyon.html
* Some thoughts about OpenOffice.org security
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/some_thoughts_about_openoffice_org
* My comments on on the article "In-depth analysis of the viral threats
with OpenOffice.org documents"
http://blogs.sun.com/malte/entry/my_comments_on_on_the
* Is OpenOffice.org less secure than Microsoft Office?
http://blogs.sun.com/malte/entry/is_openoffice_org_less_secure
* German ISV DATEV adds support for StarOffice
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/german_isv_datev_adds_support
* Not everybody is excited about MS Office 2007
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/not_everybody_is_excited_about
* Alfresco's ODF Virtual File System
http://www.alfresco.com/media/releases/content/index.php/21053d86-1d67-11db-9062-df7cbfe29dde
* OpenOffice Expected to Go OS X Native Next Month
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2006/08/30.10.shtml
* OpenOffice Gets the Ben & Jerry's Makeover
http://www.osdir.com/Article9255.phtml
* Two Lenovo ThinkPads To Support Novell SLED 10
http://www.crn.com/sections/channelbusiness/channelbusiness.jhtml?articleId=192203481
* Linux desktops sneak into NSW education
http://www.computerpartner.nl/article.php?news=int&id=4160
* Public beta test of NeoOffice 2.0 for Mac
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/77432
Events
#########################################################################
Upcoming
========
OpenOffice.org Conference 2006
Lyon, France
11-13 September 2006
http://marketing.openoffice.org/conference/
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
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
