The OASIS ODF Adoption TC is organizing an ODF Camp to be held on September 20th in Barcelona, Spain. Facilities for this event are graciously provided by OpenOffice.org, which will be holding its annual conference concurrently.
The hope is that this will be the first of several such events to bring ODF vendors together to explore ways of greater technical coordination, especially in the area of interoperability. I’ve written about and presented on this topic before. Now is the time for action, and I’m extremely pleased that so many vendors will be attending.
On other occasions I’ve called interoperability “the price of success” because a standard implemented by only a single vendor and a single application need not worry about it. Only successful standards with many implementations need to rent a hall to bring the implementors together to review and perfect interoperability.
(It is like capital gains taxes. I grumble when I pay them, but take some solace in the fact that my investments were profitable. Those who make a losing investment don’t pay capital gains taxes on it.)
The focus of this first interoperability event will be on the ODF word processor format. Follow-up events will look at spreadsheets and presentations.
Please have a look at the detailed agenda for the camp and consider joining us in Barcelona.
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