Fourteen national and eight provincial governments have now adopted policies requiring the use of ODF. Policies are one thing—what about implementation and use? Brazil offers a novel approach, the so-called Brasilia Protocol, an English translation of which is now available on Aslam Raffee’s FOSS blog. In practical terms, the Brasilia Protocol represents the Brazilian government’s transition from ODF policy adoption (ODF was identified as its recommended exchange format under its interoperability framework, or ePING, back in Nov 2006) to implementation.  Within 60 days of voluntarily signing the protocol, the entities, a “who’s who” in the Brazilian government, pledge to have in place the necessary plans to receive, edit, and exchange office documents internally in ODF, make documents available to third parties (e.g., customers, public etc..) in ODF, and exchange documents in ODF with the other entities signing the protocol.

This is no small ODF migration, as the Brazilian entities involved have a combined 500,000 desktops. An interesting model for the many other governments and public-sector entities around the world to consider as they transition from ODF policy adoption to implementation.