Open Forum Europe

My favorite quote of the day so far comes from a comment that was filed on Bob Sutor's post about how the International Organization of Standardization is risking irrelevancy based on the way it ignored objections to the rushing of the Office Open XML (OOXML) specification through the ISO's ratification process. OOXML is primarily a Microsoft -authored competitor to the already ISO-ratified OpenDocument Format (ODF). Bob Sutor is the grand pooh-bah of open standards at IBM (a major proponent of ODF).

In his post, Sutor thoroughly lashed the ISO:

If you want local and state government officials to take a serious look at open-source software, then take the open-source software to those government officials.

That's the idea behind the New York City Open Source Solutions Lab, which is debuting tomorrow to show how open-source software can help local and state government agencies in New York state cope with tightening budgets and a difficult economic outlook.

The launch of the Open Source Observatory and Repository for European Public Administrations will be held in Màlaga on the 20th of October during the Open Source World Conference, one of the most important FLOSS event in Europe.

From Andy Updegrove - In the latest twist in the OOXML - ODF document format story, ISO and IEC, two of the most venerable standards organizations in the world, have been dealt a slap by government IT agencies in six countries. In a public statement, the agencies deplore the refusal of ISO and IEC to give full attention to appeals against the OOXML process earlier lodged by Brazil, India, South Africa, and Venezuela, and suggest that if the two global standards organizations are not interested in listening to member concerns, then these members may no longer be interested in adopting ISO/IEC standards.

With open source embraced at all levels, the real benefits of a passionate community arrive

LONDON (Reuters) - A decision to dismiss appeals against the controversial fast-track approval of a Microsoft document format has provoked six members of global standards-setting body ISO to question ISO's relevance.

You might remember that we recently removed the MPL from the list of licenses available to projects hosted on Google Code. We did this because we have been trying as a company to make a statement against open source license proliferation. You see, we feel it is damaging to the larger world of open source development if there are too many duplicative licenses. So...Why are we changing our mind about the MPL and EPL now?

DALLAS, Aug 27, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Keith Bright, one of the world's leading evangelists for open approaches to technology and a key leader of IBM's initiative to drive innovation using Linux and open source software, will be the keynote speaker at "The Orange Conference," hosted by MPower for clients, partners and other members of the nonprofit community.

The International Organization for Standardization has thrown out four appeals against its ratification of Microsoft's Office Open XML document format.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) have given the green light to publish the Microsoft-backed Office Open XML (OOXML) specification after organization leaders rejected appeals from four countries to protest the vote that approved OOXML as a standard.