[ossig] Norway mandates truly open standards

[Ditesh Kumar]

>From http://virtuelvis.com/archives/2007/12/norway-mandates-html-pdf-odf

Very cool. In particular, I like their pragmatic approach (PDF for
archiving, ODF for editable document, HTML for web stuff). Perhaps those
that can read Norwegian can comment further on the article

---

According to this article [http://www.digi.no/php/art.php?id=501077]
(Norwegian only, sorry) on digi.no the Norwegian government has mandated
the use of open document formats from January 1st, 2009. I’ll give a
brief overview of what the article actually says.

There are three formats that have been mandated for all documentation
between authorities and users/partners, namely:

      * HTML for all public information on the Web.
      * PDF for all documents where layout needs to be preserved.
      * ODF for all documents that the recipient is supposed to be able
        to edit

Goverment, state and regional agencies, authorities and services may
also publish in other formats, but they must always publish in one of
these formats. The decree is retroactive, and by 2014 all documents
published prior to this decree must have been converted and made
available in one of the three formats.

While the decree doesn’t mandate any format for internal documentation,
I still have hopes that every interested party will standardize on the
same formats for internal use as well, and it is also my hope that a
real competitive market for information systems is created.

Either way, for me as a dedicated user of Linux, proponent of open
formats and standards, this is delightful. I’ll end it with a quote from
our minister for information technologies, Heidi Grande Røys, with some
emphasis added from my side:

"Everyone should have equal access to public documents. From 2009, every
citizen will be able to choose which software they want to use to get
access to public information. The goverment’s decision will also improve
the terms of competition between software providers. In the future, we
will not accept that govermental agencies lock the users of public
information to closed formats."

-- 
  May your signals all trap                     Ditesh Kumar
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      All memory aligned                http://ditesh.gathani.org/blog
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