[Ecommerce] ODF Alliance hails Brazil, India, Italy and Poland for recognizing OpenDocument Format

[Manon Ress]

http://www.odfalliance.org/press/Release20061128.pdf

For Immediate Release:  Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Press Inquiries:

Ben Farrell
540-290-9602  -- bfarrell@horngroup.com

ODF Alliance Hails Brazil, India, Italy, and Poland For Recognizing
OpenDocument Format

Washington, DC, November 28, 2006 =96 The OpenDocument Format Alliance
(ODF
Alliance), a broad cross-section of organizations, academia and
industry dedicated to improving access to electronic government
documents, today applauded Brazil's decision to recommend ODF as the
government's preferred format; India's decision to use ODF at a major
state government agency; and Italy's decision to recognize ODF as a
national standard.

The Alliance also recognized Poland, too, for demonstrating serious
interest in adopting ODF in the wake of a national meeting held for
its government with broad participants from industry and non-profit
agencies.

"2006 is ending as auspiciously as it began, with legions of
government the world over expressing real support for ODF," said
Marino Marcich, Executive Director of the ODF Alliance.  "We
congratulate Brazil, India, Italy, and Poland for recognizing ODF,
each in their own way, and look forward to the movement's continued
momentum in the new year. ODF is providing compatibility that will
enable diverse organizations worldwide to work better with one
another at lower cost, and give them access to their own information."

With the publication of  version of its 2.0 e-Ping Interoperability
Framework*, Brazil becomes the first country in South America to
officially recommend ODF. The framework states that all .xls, .doc
and .ppt files are in transition, meaning they do not comply anymore
with its technical policies, and that ODF is now the Brazilian
Government's officially recommended format.  Brazil's National IT
Institute, Ministry of Defense, and State Government of Parana are
members of the ODF Alliance.

In India, a government order was issued that ODF files will be used
for the Delhi state government's commercial tax office.  For its
part, Italy is now joining countries such as Malaysia that intend to
recognize ODF as a national standard (please see www.uninfo.polito.it/
SC34/SC34_Norme.htm#26300).  Italian standards bodies voted
unanimously to recognize ODF as soon as the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) formally publishes IS 26300,
which is expected shortly.

The Alliance has grown to 345 members in 50 countries, demonstrating
continued momentum for the file format globally.

For more information about the ODF Alliance, please visit our Web
site at
http://www.odfalliance.org
                                     ###
A copy of the Brazil framework is available at:
http://www.governoeletronico.gov.br/governoeletronico/publicacao/
down_anexo.wsp?tmp.arquivo=3DE15_677e-PING_v2.0_17112006_LINUX_FINAL.pdf

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

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