OpenDocument standardization

OpenDocument Format
OpenDocument standardization OpenDocument technical specification OpenFormula OpenDocument adoption OpenDocument software Comparison of OpenDocument software

Main article: OpenDocument

Process

The first official OASIS meeting to discuss the standard was December 16, 2002; OASIS approved OpenDocument as an OASIS standard on May 1, 2005.

The group decided to build on an earlier version of the OpenOffice.org XML format, since this was already an XML format with most of the desired properties, and had been in use since 2000 as the program's primary storage format. Note, however, that OpenDocument is not the same as the older OpenOffice.org format.

According to Gary Edwards, a member of the OpenDocument TC, the specification was developed in two phases. Phase one (which lasted from November 2002 through March 2004), had the goal of ensuring that the OpenDocument format could capture all the data from a vast array of older legacy systems. Phase Two focused on Open Internet based collaboration. ^[1]

Participants

The standardization process included the vendors of office suites or related document systems, including (in alphabetical order):

• Adobe (Framemaker, Distiller)
• Arbortext (Arbortext Enterprise Publishing System)
• Ars Aperta
• Corel (WordPerfect)
• IBM (Lotus 1-2-3, Workplace)
• KDE (KOffice)
• SpeedLegal (SmartPrecedent enterprise document assembly system); both product and company later changed names to Exari.
• Sun Microsystems / OpenOffice.org (StarOffice/OpenOffice.org)

Document-using organizations who initiated or were involved in the standardization process included (alphabetically):

• Boeing
• CSW Informatics
• Drake Certivo
• Intel (they are developing sample documents as a test suite) (Bastian, 2005)
• National Archives of Australia
• New York State Office of the Attorney General
• Novell (Berlind, October 25, 2005)
• Society of Biblical Literature
• Sony
• Stellent

As well as having formal members, draft versions of the specification were released to the public and subject to worldwide review. External comments were then adjudicated publicly by the committee.

Current status and next steps

OASIS is one of the organizations which has been granted the right to propose standards directly to an ISO SC for "Fast-Track Processing". This process is specifically designed to allow an existing standard from any source be submitted without modification directly for vote as a 'Draft International Standard (DIS) (or Draft Amendment (DAM)). Accordingly, OASIS submitted the OpenDocument standard to JTC 1/SC 34 Document description and processing languages a joint technical committee of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) for approval as an international ISO/IEC standard. It was accepted as ISO/IEC DIS 26300, Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0 draft International Standard (DIS), and it was published November 30, 2006 as ISO/IEC 26300:2006 Information technology -- Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0.^[2]

Gary Edwards, a member of the OpenDocument TC, says that after ISO standardization, "there is no doubt in my mind that OpenDocument is heading to the W3C for ratification as the successor to HTML and XHTML." ^[3]. The W3C has not made any public statements supporting or denying this statement, however.

Since Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0 was accepted as an ISO/IEC standard, OASIS have updated their standard to v1.1 in 2007. This was some years later submitted to ISO/IEC and as of March 2011 it is in "enquiry stage" as Draft Amendment 1 (ISO/IEC 26300:2006/DAM 1). OpenDocument v1.2 is (as of 2011-04) an OASIS Committee Specification. It is unknown if this will be submitted to ISO/IEC.

See also

• Standardization of Office Open XML

References

1. ^ Christian Einfeldt. "Gary Edwards: OpenOffice.org 2.0 leaping over legacy lockdown with clean XML". MadPengiun. http://madpenguin.org/cms/index.php/?m=show&opt=printable&id=5304. 
2. ^ "Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0". International Organisation for Standardisation. 2006-11-30. http://www.iso.org/iso/en/CatalogueDetailPage.CatalogueDetail?CSNUMBER=43485&scopelist=PROGRAMME. Retrieved 2006-12-05. 
3. ^ Christian Einfeldt. "Gary Edwards: OpenOffice.org 2.0 leaping over legacy lockdown with clean XML". MadPengiun. http://madpenguin.org/cms/index.php/?m=show&opt=printable&id=5304. 

External links

• OASIS OpenDocument Technical Committee coordinates the OpenDocument development and is the official source for specifications, schemas, etc.
• OASIS OpenDocument Specifications