Freitag November 18, 2005

"Open-source groups back India's free software program"
"Five language versions of the productivity software have been completed, and three have been released since the program was launched earlier this year. The objective is to extend this program to all 22 languages in India, though to start with the focus is on 12 languages that are used very extensively in computing, Raman said."
The full article can be found here.
( Nov 18 2005, 05:52:00 PM CET ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

CMPnetAsia.com: OpenOffice.org 2.0 Review
"When all is said and done, this is a great package with an impressive array of programs and features. The filters are improved, although they still appear to need some work in some instances, but if you are looking for an office suite alternative, feature for feature, OpenOffice.org gives Microsoft Office 2003 a run for its money, and for the price, you can’t beat it."
The full review can be found here.
( Nov 18 2005, 05:48:52 PM CET ) Permalink

"Christians Challenge Microsoft to Support OpenDocument for Disadvantaged"
"Several Christian Ministers and laymen from across the US and Britain have spoken out against Microsoft's refusal to support OpenDocument, thus leaving visually-impaired users of their office suite effectively unable to use the new standard adopted by Massachusetts. The Christians see Microsoft's stance as intentionally withholding support so that it can turn a technical business decision into a political fight. By refusing to support OpenDocument, Microsoft is ignoring the cross-platform document sharing needs of visually impaired users, not only in Massachusetts, but also in the other 49 states, not to mention the rest of the world. The economically disadvantaged will also suffer from the lack of Opendocument support in Microsoft Office."
The full article can be found here.
( Nov 18 2005, 05:40:10 PM CET ) Permalink

"Top national advocate for the disabled sets terms for endorsement of OpenDocument Format"
"Meanwhile, with the backing of IBM, Novell, Sun, Corel, Nokia, Oracle, Adobe, Computer Associates and Red Hat, the OASIS consortium will be establishing a technical committee that's solely decidicated to the accessibility of OpenDocument Formats. When was the last time you had a group of company's like that fighting for your approval? And where is Microsoft? The company that, according to the the people I've spoken with from your community, could with one decision make OpenDocument formatted documents just as accessible as its own. One decision. Does the disability community really want to exchange its soul the way it did on Oct 31 for that sort of behavior? Or, would you rather sieze the opportunity to break the vicious cat and tail chain by demanding a central role in the new technical committee?"
The full blog entry can be found here.
( Nov 18 2005, 03:56:21 PM CET ) Permalink

Dienstag November 15, 2005

"Summary of the the ODF Summit"
"Here's the report from the technical breakout group from the 11/4 ODF summit"

The report/summary can be found here.
( Nov 15 2005, 12:17:35 PM CET ) Permalink

"translated into all 22 official languages of India"
"The Indian government is funding an initiative to distribute free CDs containing open-source software. Around 3.5 million CDs of Tamil-language versions of open-source applications and 3.5 million Hindi-language CDs containing have already been sent out. There are plans to distribute software translated into all 22 official languages of India."

Found here.
( Nov 15 2005, 12:12:21 PM CET ) Permalink

Montag November 14, 2005

3,734 Signatures for German OpenDocument Petition so far
This German OpenDocument petition has already been signed by more than 3,700 German citizens. Wow!!! German citizens can continue to sign the petition until December 27, 2005.
( Nov 14 2005, 06:44:54 PM CET ) Permalink

Peter Korn about OpenDocument and Accessibility
If you are interested in accessibility in the context of OpenDocument, read this!
( Nov 14 2005, 06:29:58 PM CET ) Permalink

"Free those digital documents"
"An open-documents world can ensure that hundreds of years in the future people will still know the code to read mankind's records. And it will spur price and quality competition. Just look at the telecom industry, whose intense rivalries have brought price cuts and innovative services.

Freeing software from a monopoly should reap similar benefits."

The full article can be found here.
( Nov 14 2005, 11:53:13 AM CET ) Permalink

Red Hat, Inc. about OpenDocument
"“You’re trying to back into compatibility,” said Brain Stevens, chief technology office for Red Hat Inc. of Raleigh, N.C. OpenDocument was developed as a community standard, he said, one that allowed participants to “specify openly what a document format should look like.”"
Found here.
( Nov 14 2005, 11:51:35 AM CET ) Permalink

Free OpenOffice.org training videos
"Massachusetts is trying to convert all computerized state documents to the open document format (odt). We think this is a fine idea. One concern that's been expressed about this move (at least by Microsoft) is that training employees to use OpenOffice.org 2.0 or other software that uses non-proprietary file formats (in place of Microsoft Office) will be time-consuming and costly. But what if basic OpenOffice.org training materials were available online for free? As a public service for Commonwealth of Massachusetts employees (and everyone else), NewsForge is presenting -- absolutely free of charge -- 11 OpenOffice.org training videos as part of this article. They're excerpts from the video CD that comes with NewsForge Editor-in-Chief Robin 'Roblimo' Miller's upcoming book, Point & Click OpenOffice.org!, which will be available in December from all major booksellers. But we wanted you to have access to these videos now instead of waiting until the book is available, so here they are."

Links to the videos can be found here.
( Nov 14 2005, 11:49:50 AM CET ) Permalink

Donnerstag November 10, 2005

Unbelievable!
"Fair competition is always good for the consumer. A document created by a poor child for school under a freely available word processor on an older used computer will be accepted by the teacher. The idiot teacher will not be able to force the child's parents to trade a coat for a wordprocessor. Think I'm kidding, my niece had a science project fail because the document produced in Open Office didn't produce on his MS Word a lower margin of 1 inch, it created a lower margin of 1.25 inches, yes the idiot used a ruler. When he was told that the document was produced in Open Office, his response was "What's that? I said to use Microsoft Word!" and my sister who was an Airman Basic making $800 a month paid $399 for it!"

Thanks to my friend Ashish who pointed me to this! This is unbelievable! BTW, StarOffice is free for schools and universitities as well! See this!
( Nov 10 2005, 10:38:26 PM CET ) Permalink

"OpenDocument format gathers steam"
"That stepped-up commitment from major companies comes amid signs that states are considering getting behind OpenDocument. James Gallt, the associate director for the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, said Wednesday that there are a number of state agencies are exploring the use of the document format standard."
And here is the rest of the article.
( Nov 10 2005, 02:19:33 PM CET ) Permalink

Regional Dutch OpenOffice.org Conference
We definitely are in the Participation Age:

"This one-day conference for the Dutch language community (Flanders and the Netherlands), is organised for and by members of the Dutch native language community of OpenOffice.org. During this NL.OpenOffice.org RegiCon, both individuals and organisations, profit as well as non-profit, will meet the NL.OpenOffice.org members of the community. The conference theme is "Power of co-operation"."

Details about the conference can be found here.
( Nov 10 2005, 10:48:22 AM CET ) Permalink

"MS competitors gather to fast track ODF's evolution"
"Meanwhile, the cast of attendees to the Armonk was significant for another reason: many of them are not traditionally thought of as players in any of the major document technology ecosystems. That said, at the end of the day, what isn't a document? As I've suggested before, a standard like ODF could evolve into a form of digital DNA that not only allows information to easily interoperate between different vendors' products, but also between thick, thin, and service oriented offerings."
The full blog entry can be found here.
( Nov 10 2005, 10:29:43 AM CET ) Permalink