ISO and IEC Approve OpenDocument OASIS Standard

["Carol Geyer" <carol.geyer@oasis-open.org>]

ISO and IEC Approve OpenDocument OASIS Standard  

International Standard Delivers True Data Interoperability for Office
Applications

Geneva, Switzerland and Boston, MA, USA; 8 May 2006 -- The OpenDocument
OASIS Standard, a format which enables users of varying office suites to
freely exchange documents, has been approved for release as an ISO and
IEC International Standard. OpenDocument was balloted through the Joint
Technical Committee on Information Technology (JTC1) of the
International Standards Organization (ISO) and the International
Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). The OASIS OpenDocument submission has
been given the designation, ISO/IEC 26300.

OpenDocument defines a genuinely open XML file format for office
applications.  Suitable for text, spreadsheets, charts, graphs,
presentations, and databases, the standard frees documents from their
applications-of-origin, enabling them to be exchanged,  retrieved, and
edited with any OpenDocument-compliant software or tool. The standard
will facilitate access, search, use, integration, and development of
document content in new and innovative ways.

"ISO/IEC 26300 is a shining example of what partnership in
standardization can achieve for the business community. Its publication
underscores the importance of partnership among ISO and IEC and
standards developing organizations such as OASIS to craft a common set
of standards, and reflects the international community's recognition of
the importance of open formats in enabling business interoperability,"
said Alan Bryden, ISO Secretary-General. 

"ISO /IEC approval of OpenDocument as an International Standard is a
major step forward in advancing the adoption of a format that gives all
of us the flexibility to select the office application-commercial or
open source-that best meets our needs," noted Patrick Gannon, president
and CEO of OASIS. "We are particularly gratified by the broad range of
national ballots cast in favor of the standard.  This action underscores
the global support for the OASIS open standards process that produced
OpenDocument and delivers an assurance of long-term viability that is
particularly important to governments."

In May 2005, OpenDocument was ratified as an OASIS Standard and
subsequently submitted by OASIS to the ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information
technology, subcommittee SC 34, Document description and processing
languages. . As ISO/IEC 26300, the standard will continue to be
maintained and advanced by the OASIS OpenDocument Technical Committee
and the recently formed OASIS ODF Adoption Committee, both of which
remain open to participation from users, suppliers, government agencies,
and individuals. 

Current members of OASIS committees focusing on OpenDocument include
representatives of Adobe, IBM, Intel, Novell, Oracle, and Sun
Microsystems, as well as government agencies and other organizations,
such as the Chanfeng Open Standards Platform Software Alliance in China,
National Informatics Center of the Government of India, Netherlands Tax
and Customs Administration, Royal National Institute for the Blind, and
Duke University. 


About ISO/IEC JTC1:

ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 on Information Technology
Standardization is made up of 66 member and observer national standards
institutes and 38 liaison members. Eighteen subcommittees of JTC1
address a wide range of information and communication technology
matters.  JTC1 develops, maintains, promotes, and facilitates IT
standards required by global markets, meeting business and user needs
that address the design and development of IT systems and tools,  their
performance and quality, their security, the portability and
interoperability of systems and applications, unified tools and
environments,  harmonized technical vocabularies,  and user friendly,
ergonomic user interfaces.    
http://www.jtc1.org


About OASIS:

OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information
Standards) is a not-for-profit, international consortium that drives the
development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. Members
themselves set the OASIS technical agenda, using an open process
expressly designed to promote consensus and unite disparate efforts. The
consortium produces open standards for Web services, security,
e-business, and standardization efforts in the public sector and for
application-specific markets. Founded in 1993, OASIS has more than 5,000
participants representing over 600 organizations and individual members
in 100 countries. Approved OASIS Standards include AVDL, BCM, CAP, DITA,
DocBook, DSML, ebXML CPPA, ebXML Messaging, ebXML Registry, EML,
OpenDocument, SAML, SPML, UBL, UDDI, WSDM, WS-Reliability, WSRF, WSRP,
WS-Security, XACML, XCBF, and XML Catalogs.  http://www.oasis-open.org


Additional Information:

ISO
http://www.iso.org/ 

OASIS OpenDocument Technical Committee
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/office/

OASIS ODF Adoption Technical Committee
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/odf-adoption/



ISO press contact: 

Elizabeth Gasiorowski-Denis
Journalist
Public Relations Services
Tel. +41 22 749 01 11
Fax +41 22 733 34 30
E-mail gasiorowski@iso.org 


OASIS press contact: 

Carol Geyer
Director of Communications, OASIS
carol.geyer@oasis-open.org
+1.978.667.5115 x209