EU Conclusions from Open Document Exchange Formats Workshop

In Berlin on 28^th February 2007 the IDABC unit of the European Commission, in conjunction with the German Presidency held a one day workshop on Open Document Exchange Formats. Some 100 attendees including representatives from 21 member states, and industry were able to listen to presentations from both administrations and the main industry stakeholders. The member states then met in private and reached a set of conclusions which were then discussed and presented the next day at the main Advancing eGovernment Conference, and formed part of the formal declaration.

The presentation given by Dr Barbara Held is attached (pdf) but the conclusions presented were:

There was strong consensus among Member State administrations on

• the necessity to use ODEF

• on "openness" being the basic criteria of ODEF

• and resulting requirements towards industry players / consequences for public administrations

• There is a general dissatisfaction with the perspective of having competing standards;

• One format for one purpose: Administrations should be able to standardize (internally) on a minimal set of formats;

• No incomplete implementations, no proprietary extensions;

• Products should support all relevant standards and standards used should be supported by multiple products;

• Conformance testing and document validation possibilities are needed -> in order to facilitate mapping / conversion;

• Handle the legacy / safeguard accessibility

OpenForum Europe (who attended and participated in the workshop) strongly endorse these conclusions. In particular we take note of the overwhelming view from Member States on the detrimental effect that more than standard in one area would have, significantly increasing confusion, complexity and cost.