Czech goes for NO

Czech Normalization Institute (CNI) accepted half of the submitted technical comments to the committee earlier last month. There is a new deadline 16.7.2007 for consulting accepted comments to the DIS29500, however they will not accept any new comments but still can remove already accepted comments. Main purpose of this procedure is to provide a clearer view on the existing comments and fix any bugs made in the proceeding. CNI will vote for no with comments, and this statement shouldn't change until all of the submitted comments are dealt with.

Closer on comments, there was total 61 submitted comments which 32 of these were accepted as issues by CNI. Some of the comments were very relevant, somehow the good interpretation was missing.

The webpage with accepted and rejected comments by CNI is here.

Government of Japan Embraces Open Software Standards

The OpenDocument Format Alliance (ODF Alliance), the leading organization advocating for openness and accessibility to government documents and information, today congratulated Japan for adopting a policy under which government ministries and agencies will solicit bids from software vendors whose products support internationally recognized open standards.

Previously, government agencies could ask bidders to submit bids based on whether their products offered functions comparable to particular software suites. With the new interoperability framework, which takes effect immediately, the government will give preference to procuring products that adhere to open standards, and which interoperate easily with other software.

The new guidelines, available from Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, were designed to be implemented by government ministries and agencies. The interoperability framework also suggests that the guidelines would also be useful for private industry.

govtech.com

Anti-Microsoft Office campaign gathers pace

3:06PM, Friday 13th July 2007

More than 20,000 people have put their names to a web petition
opposing Microsoft's attempts to have its new Office file format
accepted as an international standard.

The NoOOXML.org petition calls on members of the ISO (International
Organization for Standardization) to vote against accepting Open XML,
which it says Microsoft is trying to fast-track through the approval
process

"People are outraged by what's going on," said petition author
Benjamin Henrion. "Not since the software patents fight have we seen
such a reaction from the online community. And it's gone global. Users
are happy with the existing international standard for documents, and
can't see why Microsoft is forcing its own standard except in pure
self-interest."

Henrion says that Microsoft's specification is closed, protected by
patents and secrets. The petition lists eight objections. Others have
pointed to serious bugs, such as the format's inability to handle
dates before 1900.

PCpro.co.uk

Computers for good cause

June In Bratislava,

Dell corporation along with NGO Pontis created a project of giving away used DELL computers from DELL call centre in Bratislava. Around 77 non-governmental organizations received 280 computers with Ubuntu cds, Slovak manual and online support from Slovak Open Source Initiative(SKOSI.org). Most receivers are working with handicapped people like Slovak Union of sightless and Sight-Impaired or with children and schools. Around 30 - 40 % of the NGOs welcomed free and open source software on their computers. Around 10% asked for K Desktop Environment (KDE), which means they know it before.

For the open call in April, we had 711 applicant for 3680 computers, which clearly shows a great possibility to do similar projects in the future.