2nd International ODF User Workshop

[Carol Cosgrove-Sacks <Carol.Cosgrove-Sacks@oasis-open.org>]

-Dear eGMS Members,

I thought you would find it useful to see this announcement about ODF implementation, hosted by South Africa.

Any questions to be addressed to 
Aslam Raffee
Chief Information Officer
Dept: Science and Technology
Tel: +27 12 843 6606
Email: aslam.raffee@dst.gov.za

Best wishes,
Carol Cosgrove-Sacks
OASIS eGov Convenor
Don't forget the OASIS London Forum next week on Security Challenges for the Information Society http://events.oasis-open.org/home/forum/2008
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Just two weeks to go before the 2nd International ODF User Workshop -- hosted by South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs in collaboration with the ODF Alliance -- kicks off on October 9 in Pretoria. ODF has come of age in 2008. Since the first ODF workshop in Berlin in October 2007, many governments have moved from policy adoption and are now down the road to implementation. We have a great lineup of speakers from governments around the world who will share their successes and challenges in adopting the OpenDocument Format. 

· Peter Strickx , Director General for Architecture and Standards, Federal Public Service for Information & Communication Technology (FEDICT), takes measure of Belgium's progress in implementing ODF 

· Carlos Machado from Brazil's Federal Enterprise for Data Processing (SERPRO) and Paulo Maia of the Caixa Econômica Federal introduce the so-called Brasilia Protocol, one government's approach to transitioning from ODF policy adoption to implementation 

· Ineke Schop of the Netherlands in Open Connection (NOiV) reveals the inconvenient truths about open standards and ODF 

· Tan King Ing of the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) discusses OpenOffice.org migration in the Malaysian public sector 

· What's government got to do with it? Justice Yatindra Singh of the Allahabad High Court looks at government IT leadership in action -- can governments be the change they seek in the world? 

These are just a few of the government presenters we have assembled for the workshop. While the workshop is intended for governments, we have also assembled a number of influential speakers from the private sector who have been part of the growing public debate concerning document formats from the very beginning. Bob Sutor , IBM's Vice President for Open Source and Standards, reflects back on the early days of the debate and takes a peek into the future. Simon Phipps , Chief Open Source Officer, Sun Microsystems, examines ODF and the adoption-led market. With every major vendor now at least promising to implement support for ODF, how do we get from standardization to interoperability? With the expected arrival of ODF v1.2 and support for metadata, spreadsheet formula, and digital signatures, how has ODF’s value proposition been boosted for governments? We’ll also hear about the proposed revision of the influential European Interoperability Framework (EIF) and what it means for governments. 

Please come join us, present, or just “listen and learn” from the opportunities and challenges of your peers in government. It's not too late for you to participate in the workshop. If you haven’t RSVPed yet, please do so by contacting Marino Marcich ( mmarcich@odfalliance.org ). We would like to deliver a workshop that can measure up to the very successful workshop that was held in Berlin last year. I hope to see you in Pretoria.

Regards,

Aslam Raffee
Chief Information Officer
Dept: Science and Technology
Tel: +27 12 843 6606
Email: aslam.raffee@dst.gov.za