[Chapter-delegates] Introducing OpenDoc Society and invitation to the founding meeting October 23rd 2007

[Michiel Leenaars]

Dear all,


I would like to invite you all to the founding meeting of the OpenDoc
Society that will be held in the afternoon of Tuesday the 23th of
October. Speakers at this occasion are among others: the Netherlands
Minister of Foreign Economic affairs Frank Heemskerk, dr. Karel de
Vriendt (head of IDABC unit of the European Commission) and Patrick
Durusau (chair of INCITS V1 and one of the editors of the Open Document
Format standard). Location is the Royal Library in The Hague, The
Netherlands.  The programme starts at 15.00 hours (welcome 14.30 hr)
and lasts until 17.00 hours. After that we will celebrate the occasion
with a reception, which is offered to the ODF community by stichting
NLnet.

So what is this new society about, and why do we think it is necessary
to start something new? The OpenDoc Society will (in a remarkably
similar fashion to what ISOC does for internet standards ;) ) unite
individuals and organisations with a common interest in all ODF and
related open document standard issues. As you will no doubt be aware
Open Document Format is the international OASIS/ISO-standard that will
replace widespread application specific file formats as .doc, .wpd, .xls
and .rtf. It can be used in the vast majority of Office applications
such as Open Office, Wordperfect, Lotus Symphony, Star Office, KOffice,
Google Docs and Zoho Office - or in the case of Microsoft Office through
a plugin. Moving away from vendor specific binary formats is of great
importance for the digital durability of our corporate information, our
intellectual history, our cultural heritage and other valuable
information from the public and private domain. Governments all over
the world (Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, etc.) are converting to ODF
on a short term. In the corporate world there is also a significant
push for the switch to these open standards. But we need to give the
community the means to move ahead, mobilise the developers and make it
easy for decision makers and IT managers to do the right thing.    

OpenDoc Society will focus on practical matters such as: tools for end
users and developers, transition strategies and dealing with legacy,
government policy, integration with other ICT means, professional
support, accessibility - but of course also on the latest innovations,
interoperability and quality control issues. ODF is for everyone, and
we want to make sure that everyone can switch to it as easily and
problem free as possible. We want to build the ecosystems around the
standard: from enterprise document management tools to prepress
environments, from plugins to complete editing environments, from
providing OEM kits with all available ODF tools (commercial and
non-commercial alike) on one DVD to developer tools and assistive
software for people with a handicap. We will also be organising
masterclasses, tutorials and training on interesting parts of the
specification - starting with a masterclass by Patrick Durusau (editor
of ODF) on 'the rise of smart documents' (about metadata in ODF)
already the next day after the launch.

The OpenDoc Society already has the support of several dozens of
organisations, educational institutes, companies and not for profits
including: OpenOffice.org, SGML/XML User Group Nederland, CWI,
stichting Bartimeus Accessibility.nl, CapGemini, Waag Society, Bull,
Novell, Ubuntu, Sun Microsystems, Internet Society, Stichting NLnet,
IBM, Rednose, O3spaces, Holland Open, the SELF project and the
Institute for Network Cultures. 

Most of you will not be able to attend the founding meeting at such
late notice, I am perfectly aware. However, we think the idea of an
OpenDoc Society is very scalable and that there is an important role
for an organisation that brings together the “demand side” and the
community at large to claim their involvement and share their
knowledge. Also, we are looking for a positive approach – if the vast
majority can work with (and can accept) ODF files in some way, we will
have overcome the biggest hurdle to help further. So if there is any
interest among you or people you know to branch this organisation to
your region or to help out, let me know and we will gladly get you
started with the materials we already have. 

We look forward to your ideas and suggestions. You can register
yourself or your organisation as a member (it's vary affordable for
business and government and totally free for not-for-profits such as
ISOC chapters, education institutes and open source projects - we don't
want to create unnecessary barriers). If you really like what we are
doing, you might consider a sponsorship. Please consider signing up for
the newsletter or take a cost free support membership, so we can inform
you of all new developments within the world of ODF and the OpenDoc
Society in particular.

Yours sincerely,

Michiel Leenaars
Director ISOC.nl
Manager strategy stichting NLnet
Policy advisor Stichting Nationale Computerfaciliteiten
- ----------------------
More information on the programme and the route to the Royal Library
you will find here:

http://www.opendocsociety.org/foundingmeeting

About OpenDoc Society:

Our Society has as its goal to promote Open Document Format and other
related standards and by this way to contribute to the durability and
accesibility of information. The most important areas of interest are:

   1. Striving to accomplish an as complete as possible representation
      of users, developers and other parties involved with ODF and
      related standards. 
   2. Developing and maintaining formal and informal relations between
      the national and international ODF community. 
   3. Offering information, expertise and other facilities on ODF and
      related standards. 
   4. Promoting the accesibility of ODF for all individuals, groups and
      organisations 
   5. Offering a platform for discussion and the sharing of
      views on ODF 
   6. Cooperating with other organisations in the area of open document
      standards to coordinate, collaborate and educate. 
   7. Offering services to help individuals, groups and organisations
      use ODF effectively for communication, cooperation, education and
      innovation. 
   8. Contributing to durability and accessibility of information in
      the public, commercial and private domain and daily usage 
   9. Stimulating innovation and new aplications of ODF. 
  10. Stimulating the use and development of ODF in general.