[Ecommerce] Public Meeting on User Perspectives on Open Document Format (October 20, Cambridge, MA)

[Manon Ress]

Sorry for crossposting, feel free to circulate

USER Perspectives on Open Document Format (ODF) -- October 20, 2006
A Public Round Table Discussion, organized by the TransAtlantic
Consumer Dialogue (TACD)

To register: bwallis at consint.org

Hosted by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard Law School,
and supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Meeting Venue:
Pound Hall, Room 335
1563 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02138

http://www.cptech.org/a2k/odf/odfwkshop20oct06/index.html

TACD, a consultative forum to the U.S. Government and European
Commission, is holding a Round Table discussion of consumer and user
perspectives on the benefits and risks of ODF, as well as the issues
concerning its implementation. The Open Document Format (ODF) is a
relatively new standard for document and data formats that has been
endorsed by a number of software companies and free software
advocates. It could replace the proprietary standards for word
processing, presentation graphics and spreadsheet documents that are
now essentially controlled by Microsoft, a firm that has control over
more than 90 percent of the global market for office productivity
software. TACD seeks to better understand the opportunities and
challenges of policies that would require or encourage the use of ODF
as a standard document format. This public workshop will include
members of various communities including consumer groups, vendors,
disabled persons, government and academics representatives.

Participants include:
Alwin Sixma, Consumentenbond (The Netherlands)
Ann Wright, Consumers Union (US)
Ben Wallis, TACD Coordinator
Benedicte Federspiel, Danish Consumer Council
Dave Banisar, Privacy International
Ed Mierzwinski, US PIRG (US)
Eric Bourassa, Mass PIRG (US)
James Love, Consumer Project on Technology (US)
Jeannine Kenney, Consumers Union (US)
Lars Grondal, Consumer Council of Norway
Lewis Akenji, Association of Conscious Consumers (Hungary)
Malini Aisola, Consumer Project on Technology (US)
Manon Ress, Consumer Project on Technology (US)
Mark Silbergeld, Consumers Federation of America (US)
Torgeir Waterhouse, Consumer Council of Norway
Andrew Updegrove, Gesmer Updegrove LLP
Brian Charlson, Carroll Center for the Blind
Dan Geer, Versadys
Douglas Johnson, Sun Microsystems
Eric Kriss, Workmode
Laura Denardis, Yale Information Society Group
Leon Shiman, X.org
Louis Saurez-Potts, OpenOffice.org
Paul Hyland, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
Peter Strickx, Belgian Federal Government
Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, MERIT, University of Maastricht
Rob Weir, IBM
Tim Vaverchak, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Tom Rabon, Red Hat Inc
Sam Hiser, Hiser Adelstein & Associates
Will Rodger, Computer and Communications Industry Association



************************************************
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology
1621 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20009 USA
Tel.:  +1.202.332.2670, Ext 16 Fax: +1.202.332.2673

Consumer Project on Technology
1 Route des  Morillons, CP 2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 791 6727

Consumer Project on Technology
24 Highbury Crescent, London, N5 1RX, UK
Tel: +44(0)207 226 6663 ex 252 Fax: +44(0)207 354 0607