All,
1 May 2006: The International Organization for Standardization (the ISO) has today approved a standard file format to be used worldwide for the storage of files produced by office software (word processor documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, etc.). For the first time in the history of computing, software users will be guaranteed that they will be able to use their data in any compliant software package, both now and in the future. The point of an open standard is that any compliant application can use it.
As Simon Phipps, the Chief Open Source Officer at Sun Microsystems, wrote,
"This is a landmark moment for the Free/Open Source Software movement. An innovation that started here [at OpenOffice.org] has been reviewed, adopted and now endorsed at the highest level as an international standard. We now have a standard for productivity documents that is recognised by governments, which often require ISO approval."
The OpenOffice.org productivity suite fully supports the new ISO/IEC 26300 standard (and since version 2.0 has has fully supported the OpenDocument format on which it is based). The Project has led the world in charting a new path.
As Louis Suarez-Potts, the OpenOffice.org Community Manager writes,
"The approval by the ISO helps level the playing field and helps clarify what is at stake: your intellectual property, your right to use innovative software. The open standard means not only that your property is not held hostage to the company making the application but also that new applications, new extensions, new ways of doing things can be created. The user wins."
The time is now, the tools are here, the freedom is yours.
-OpenOffice.org
About OpenOffice.org
The OpenOffice.org Community is an international team of volunteer and sponsored contributors who develop, support, and promote the leading open-source office productivity suite, OpenOffice.org®.
OpenOffice.org supports the Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) OASIS Standard (ISO/IEC 26300) as well as legacy industry file formats and is available on major computing platforms in over 65 languages. OpenOffice.org is provided under the GNU Lesser General Public Licence (LGPL).
The OpenOffice.org Community acknowledges generous sponsorship from a number of companies, including Sun Microsystems, the founding sponsor and primary contributor.
Links
The OpenOffice.org Community can be found at / The OpenOffice.org office productivity suite may be downloaded free of charge from /download Further information about the suite may be found at //product
Press Contacts
Jacqueline McNally (UTC +08h00)
OpenOffice.org Marketing Project Lead
jacqueline@openoffice.org
+61 (8) 9474-3021
John McCreesh (UTC +01h00)
OpenOffice.org Marketing Project Co-Lead
jpmcc@openoffice.org
+44 (0)7 810 278 540
Cristian Driga (UTC +0200)
OpenOffice.org Marketing Project Co-Lead
cdriga@openoffice.org
+40 7887 000 60
Louis Suarez-Potts (UTC -04h00)
OpenOffice.org Community Manager
louis@openoffice.org
+1 (416) 625 3843
Worldwide Marketing Contacts
http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html
