Erwin's StarOffice Tango

OpenDocument in Denmark?!?!?!
Do any Danish people read my blog? I just came across this Computerworld article which apparently talks about the use of the OpenDocument Format in Denmark. Unfortunately, I haven't found a very good online translation service, yet. Here is the result of one translation tool. It looks like one of the Danish ministries is recommending the use of OpenDocument, but I will have to verify this with some Danish Sun colleagues.
( Mai 28 2006, 12:52:46 PM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [5]

Kommentare:

The article says that Helge Sander, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation in Denmark is promising that all publications on the ministry homepage will be availiable in ODF. This should be done not later than september 1st.

Gesendet von Henning am Mai 28, 2006 at 01:12 PM CEST #

Yeah, that's pretty much it. The central piece is this:

- Jeg vil gerne understrege, at anvendelsen af åbne standarder er central for 
udviklingen i digital forvaltning. Som et første skridt har jeg bedt mit eget 
ministerium om, at vi fra september tilbyder publikationer og anden relevant 
skriftlig kommunikation i det åbne dokumentformat ODF, sagde Helge Sander.

"I want to empasize that the use of open standards is central to the development of digital government. As a first step I've asked my own department that we from September start offering publications and other relevant written communication in the open documentformat ODF, said Helge Sander."

Gesendet von Mads Toftum am Mai 28, 2006 at 05:20 PM CEST #

Thank you for the translation!

Gesendet von Erwin Tenhumberg am Mai 29, 2006 at 05:53 AM CEST #

There's a bit more to it than that. Recently a secret report made by the IT and Telecommunication Ministry before Christmas was leaked; it described the benefits of using open standards in public IT systems. The three main conclusions of the report were:

1. Open standards contribute positively to the development of digital administration by supporting innovation and competition in the market.
2. The government has an important role in the standardization and ought to be proactive about open standards.
3. It is recommended that open standards are made compulsory where it is necessary to create interoperability and create an integrated business process, and where the advantages are greater than the cost in the specific business process.

Last one sounds like corporate doubletalk to me, but the leaking of the report prompted an immediate meeting on the 23rd of May about this so that the government would have a new public statement, since the previous line from the Ministry of Science has been that they were not able to measure how much it would cost to implement open standards in government.

Open standards were discussed around the 1st of May in the government and Helge Sander declined to answer why this report was not part of those discussions.

Part of the result of the meeting was the trial of ODF from September 1st onward. Again, it is only a trial, they're going to add ODF to the Word & PDF formats that all public information is available in and at the end of the year they're going to evaluate the results.

One political party has suggested that all government IT acquisitions from 1st of January 2008 should be solely those based on open standards, but this suggestion has been resisted by others.

Unfortunately it was difficult to get any concrete information about any future advances of open standards, especially within anything other than office documents. Helge Sander did reiterate that it is still the policy of the government to spread the use of open standards.

Gesendet von Tailen am Mai 29, 2006 at 12:04 PM CEST #

You can find a bit more inside info about recent developments for ODF in Denmark on John Gotze's blog here: http://gotzespace.dk John was intimately involved in all this work behind the scenes, as he notes. Jeff Kaplan Founder & Director Open ePolicy Group Berkman Center for Internet & Society

Gesendet von Jeff Kaplan am Mai 29, 2006 at 05:42 PM CEST #