FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Marino Marcich, ODF Alliance, +1.202.789.4450,
Beth Dozier, Rational PR, +1.202.429.1833,

Microsoft Responds to Growing Demand for ODF
ODF Alliance Cautions Governments to Evaluate the New Software
to Ensure Sufficient Interoperability

Washington, DC, April 28, 2009.  The ODF Alliance today welcomed the release of Microsoft’s Service Pack 2 for Office 2007, a software update that provides long-awaited support for the OpenDocument Format (ODF), while cautioning governments to evaluate the new software to ensure sufficient interoperability with other ODF-supporting applications. 

“This action reflects the global market demand, particularly by governments, for open standards-based interoperability through ODF,” said ODF Alliance managing director Marino Marcich. “This is a victory for ODF, as it signifies a reversal of course by Microsoft from their decision to shun the format during the initial launch of Office 2007.”

ODF was approved as a standard by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) in May 2005 and approved as an international standard (ISO/IEC 26300:2006) in May 2006. Instead of joining other software providers in support of a common industry standard and despite repeated calls from governments to implement support for ODF, Microsoft developed its own XML-based format, Office Open XML (OOXML), which it released in MS Office 2007.

The ranks of governments adopting ODF has continued to grow, as has the depth and range of ODF-supporting software. Seventeen national and eight provincial governments have endorsed ODF for document exchange, the latest being the UK government, which, under the “Open Source, Open Standards and Re–Use: Government Action Plan” indicated it will support the use of ODF and will work to ensure that government information is available in open formats. There are currently over 50 ODF-supporting word processors, spreadsheet and presentation applications.

“Microsoft has dragged its feet for over three years now. The key test will be whether Microsoft’s support for ODF plays well with other ODF-supporting software,” continued Marcich. “Governments will want to further evaluate the support for ODF provided by Microsoft and whether it sufficiently meets their needs for greater openness and interoperability.”

About the ODF Alliance:
The OpenDocument Format Alliance is an organization of governments, academic institutions, non-government organizations and industry dedicated to educating policy makers, IT administrators and the public on the benefits and opportunities of ODF.

The appointment of Aneesh Chopra as the U.S. federal government’s first Chief Technology Officer (CTO), together with the earlier appointment of Vivek Kundra as the Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO), is a signal of the importance of information technology to the Obama Administration. We expect Chopra to play a vital role in achieving the policy goals set out in the Administration’s IT platform. He comes on board having already been tasked under the Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government with coordinating the development of recommendations to executive departments and agencies to take specific actions implementing the principles of transparent, participatory, and collaborative government. His experience as Virginia’s Secretary of Technology, where he partnered with industry on several important initiatives, will be useful in addressing the challenges of open government data, where the ODF Alliance has made specific recommendations.

We applaud the Obama Administration on this appointment and congratulate Aneesh Chopra on becoming the nation’s first CTO.

ODF Turkey was officially established on April 10 during the annual Government IT Managers event in Antalya. I made the announcement during my presentation there together with Prof. Dr. Turhan Menteş, President of the Turkish Informatics Association (Türkiye Bilişim Derneği). Current members include Sun, Oracle, IBM, the Turkish Informatics Association, the Software Freedom Initiative, and the Pardus team (a national GNU/Linux distribution).

The Alliance has regional chapters in Europe and Latin America and national chapters in Brazil, Hungary, India, Latvia, Malaysia, Poland, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and now Turkey. Congratulations and best wishes to the new team in their efforts to advance document freedom in Turkey and the benefits it brings in terms of software choice, long term access to data, interoperability, and cost savings.

Marino Marcich
ODF Alliance