Cheok explained: "We did a road show, visited every unit and took pains to communicate the strategic benefits [to Mindef] and savings associated with this move.
"Once the users understood the reasons for this move and the savings involved, they were supportive of the migration and the majority embraced this change whole-heartedly," he said.
Moreover, Mindef adopted a flexible approach by continuing to provide Microsoft Office to users who have strong business needs for the software, for instance, when they need to collaborate with external parties.
Microsoft, in an attempt to appease government customers requesting for ODF support, said last month that it plans to sponsor an open-source project to create plug-in software that allows Microsoft Office users to work on ODF documents.
Abraham welcomed this move by Microsoft, and pointed out that an ODF plug-in for Microsoft Office will strengthen the case for governments to standardize on ODF.
Mindef's Cheok agreed. "[The ODF plug-in] would overcome most of the inter-operability issues between Microsoft Office and OpenOffice because ODF can be read and edited by either software."
Technology evolution
Goh Seow Hiong, Asia director of software policy at Business Software Alliance (BSA), said adopters of technology standards must consider the flexibility of these standards over time as technology evolves.
"It isn't the case that an open standard is always necessarily the best choice," he said. "There have been instances in the past where other de-facto standards such as SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol), fared better and were preferred by consumers to open standards such as the X.400, that existed at that time. With time, many of these de-facto standards eventually became open standards, including the SMTP."
Furthermore, he noted that if organizations adopt ODF to the exclusion of other standards, it could become a burden over time.
Goh explained: "The technology based on ODF continues to evolve, and it is still unclear whether the various performance criteria required by customer demand and need would be sufficiently met by ODF implementations.
"Whether that happens over time depends on demand and the software developers' responses to meet the demand," he added. "This is not to say that governments should artificially create the demand that would distort the market, and lead to inefficiencies and hamper innovation. Other standards are also likely to emerge over time."
Another point to consider is that different standards and formats serve different purposes, Goh said. Formats such as Adobe's PDF are used primarily for viewing, while others such as the ODF and Microsoft's Word Document, are for editing documents.
"For someone publishing a document for wide consumption, the use of different formats would serve different purposes," he said. "Using only one standard exclusively for the wrong purpose would not work, even if it is an open standard."
BSA Asia
Adobe, on the contrary, does not impose royalties on software companies that creates software to read and write PDF files, so "everybody can benefit from this proprietary standard," Abraham said.
But he acknowledged that open standards have its shortcomings: "[Open standards] may not be the best way to get innovation out of an industry because private companies sometimes move much faster than big consortiums and committees."
Mindef's Cheok noted that the adoption of open standards takes time.
"Currently, Microsoft Office format is overwhelmingly dominant in Singapore," he said. "Most of us are casual users, we do not care if a document [is based on] open standards as long as we can read and edit it. If Microsoft Office format [already] serves this purpose, it would take a long time for the ODF to gain widespread adoption."
"As a community, we need to decide whether it is in our strategic interests to [provide and have] choice. If it is in our interest to do so, a good starting point is to encourage the provision of both Microsoft Office format and ODF in all public and commercial Web sites and let people decide which version they want to use.
"If new versions of Microsoft Office costs too much to buy, and older versions of Microsoft Office have reached end-of-life and are no longer supported, I think users--in bigger numbers--will begin to look at OpenOffice as an alternative."
Play video
If they are serious about an ODF Plug-in for MSOffice, that installs easily and operates with complete transparency and without disruption to MSOffice bound business processes and accessibility add ons, they should contact us. The OpenDocument Foundation's ODF Plug-in instantly converts all MSOffice installations into high fidelity ODF productivity pumps. Our plug-in works inside MSOffice with a transparcency so complete, users will not know they are working in ODF unless they look at the file format extensions. MSBinaries are transparently converted to ODF, and ODF files can be transparently converted to MSBinaries if needed. Or, ODF can be set as the default format, converting everything into ODF.
There is zero disruption to existing business processes, including the use of assistive technologies. And the fidelity can be set so high as to be completely reflective to MSBinaries.
The current version of the ODF Plug-in now participating in the Massachusetts RFi trials includes the new ISO-OASIS ODF accessiblity and metadata eXtensions. As soon as the ODF OpenFormula eXtensions are completed, they will be quickly added to shipping version of the Plug-in.
For more information contact The OpenDocument Foundation at gary.edwards@OpenDocument.us. Every version of MSOffice from 1997 to 2007 is fully capable of producing and participating with workflows with perfect ODF.
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Gary Edwards
The OpenDocument Foundation, Inc.
Redwood City, CA USA 94063
(650) 365-0899
(650) 888-2268 c.
gary.edwards@OpenDocument.us
OpendocumentFoundation.us
Founding member of the OASIS OpenDocument TC, representing the OpenOffice.org Community
Founding member of the OpenDocument Foundation, Inc. - a USA 501c(3) non profit chartered in the public interest to support, develop and promote the OASIS OpenDocument XML file format.
OpenDocument is the world's first "universal file format". But it's also central to the future of the Open Internet. So the Foundation charter includes another most important objective. The Foundation seeks to increase the participation of open source communities and individuals in the formal "Open Standards" process. By joining OSS with vendors and traditional organizations in the work of perfecting truly Open Standards, the Foundation believes that the Open Internet we enjoy today will remain open for future generations to come.
Posted by Gary Edwards on Wednesday, August 09 2006 04:33 PM