ISO and IEC Approve OpenDocument OASIS Standard; International Standard Delivers True Data Interoperability for Office Applications

Business Wire, May 8, 2006

GENEVA & BOSTON -- The OpenDocument OASIS Standard, a format which enables users of varying office suites to freely exchange documents, has been approved for release as an ISO and IEC International Standard. OpenDocument was balloted through the Joint Technical Committee on Information Technology (JTC1) of the International Standards Organization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). The OASIS OpenDocument submission has been given the designation, ISO/IEC 26300.

OpenDocument defines a genuinely open XML file format for office applications. Suitable for text, spreadsheets, charts, graphs, presentations, and databases, the standard frees documents from their applications-of-origin, enabling them to be exchanged, retrieved, and edited with any OpenDocument-compliant software or tool. The standard will facilitate access, search, use, integration, and development of document content in new and innovative ways.

"ISO/IEC 26300 is a shining example of what partnership in standardization can achieve for the business community. Its publication underscores the importance of partnership among ISO and IEC and standards developing organizations such as OASIS to craft a common set of standards, and reflects the international community's recognition of the importance of open formats in enabling business interoperability," said Alan Bryden, ISO Secretary-General.

"ISO /IEC approval of OpenDocument as an International Standard is a major step forward in advancing the adoption of a format that gives all of us the flexibility to select the office application--commercial or open source--that best meets our needs," noted Patrick Gannon, president and CEO of OASIS. "We are particularly gratified by the broad range of national ballots cast in favor of the standard. This action underscores the global support for the OASIS open standards process that produced OpenDocument and delivers an assurance of long-term viability that is particularly important to governments."

In May 2005, OpenDocument was ratified as an OASIS Standard and subsequently submitted by OASIS to the ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology, subcommittee SC 34, Document description and processing languages. As ISO/IEC 26300, the standard will continue to be maintained and advanced by the OASIS OpenDocument Technical Committee and the recently formed OASIS ODF Adoption Committee, both of which remain open to participation from users, suppliers, government agencies, and individuals.

Current members of OASIS committees focusing on OpenDocument include representatives of Adobe, IBM, Intel, Novell, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems, as well as government agencies and other organizations, such as the Chanfeng Open Standards Platform Software Alliance in China, National Informatics Center of the Government of India, Netherlands Tax and Customs Administration, Royal National Institute for the Blind, and Duke University.

About ISO/IEC JTC1

ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 on Information Technology Standardization is made up of 66 member and observer national standards institutes and 38 liaison members. Eighteen subcommittees of JTC1 address a wide range of information and communication technology matters. JTC1 develops, maintains, promotes, and facilitates IT standards required by global markets, meeting business and user needs that address the design and development of IT systems and tools, their performance and quality, their security, the portability and interoperability of systems and applications, unified tools and environments, harmonized technical vocabularies, and user friendly, ergonomic user interfaces. http://www.jtc1.org

About OASIS:

OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit, international consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards. Members themselves set the OASIS technical agenda, using an open process expressly designed to promote consensus and unite disparate efforts. The consortium produces open standards for Web services, security, e-business, and standardization efforts in the public sector and for application-specific markets. Founded in 1993, OASIS has more than 5,000 participants representing over 600 organizations and individual members in 100 countries. Approved OASIS Standards include AVDL, BCM, CAP, DITA, DocBook, DSML, ebXML CPPA, ebXML Messaging, ebXML Registry, EML, OpenDocument, SAML, SPML, UBL, UDDI, WSDM, WS-Reliability, WSRF, WSRP, WS-Security, XACML, XCBF, and XML Catalogs. http://www.oasis-open.org

Additional Information:

ISO

http://www.iso.org/

OASIS OpenDocument Technical Committee

http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/office/

OASIS ODF Adoption Technical Committee

http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/odf-adoption/