ODF Interoperability Plugfest at the Hague

["Dennis E. Hamilton" <dennis.hamilton@acm.org>]

There was a two-day ODF plugfest held at The Hague in the Netherlands on June 15-16.  This event may be of possible tangential interest with regard to the trend toward disciplined testing of the interoperability of ODF implementations.  

The ODF Plugfest is not yet at the level of discipline that Test Assertion Guidelines provide.

MORE INFORMATION

I have a blog page that summarizes the event and provides links to more coverage:
<http://nfoworks.org/diary/2009/06/odf-interoperability-at-hague.htm>.

There is an an-line video of ODF TC Co-Chair Rob Weir's presentation.  Rob provides an account of the ODF specification lifecycle process and where ODF 1.2 is in that.  The remainder of the video covers interoperability and the various ways that it is being strengthened by a variety of community activities.  
<http://boycottnovell.com/2009/06/23/rob-weir-from-odf/>.

The event was also discussed in the last conference call of the ODF Interoperability and Conformance TC (under action item #0028 and in section 4):
<http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/oic/200906/msg00054.html>

The testing that was done involved creating some specimen documents and then exchanging them among implementations.  A number of eye-ball checks revealed discrepancies among implementations and some bugs were repaired on the spot.

This was an initial exploration.  The test materials and procedures were not particularly disciplined.  By all reports, the participants found it extremely valuable and there is a desire for more testing and better testing.

Although the OIC TC was represented by members and the Chair, we did not have any official tests available and the work on application of test assertions for ODF conformance and interoperability was not a factor in the testing that was done.

There is interest in having a perpetual plugfest via some sort of virtual, on-line arrangement.  There is some interest in another European face-to-face plugfest soon.  There is an opportunity to also have one on the side of the OpenOffice.org 2009 Conference at Orvieto, Italy, in the first week of November.

 - Dennis

Dennis E. Hamilton
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