OpenDocument Foundation
Encyclopedia
The OpenDocument Foundation, Inc. was an organization set up in 2002 by Gary Edwards, Sam Hiser, and Paul "Buck" Martin (real name Paul E. Merrell) to promote the use of open standard
s-based XML
/RDF
document formats for desktop computer use.
Many Members of the foundation were involved in the development of OpenDocument
first in the OASIS Office XML Format TC (Technical Committee) and later in the OASIS Open Document Format TC with up to four members of the TC representing the OpenDocument foundation in the TC.
In October 2007, the OpenDocument Foundation controversially switched its support from OpenDocument
to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)'s
Compound Document Format (CDF)
. The case was unfortunate since the name of the Foundation suggested for the uninvolved reader that they were deeply connected to the format, or originated it, and the change meant an important supporter to get dissatisfied with the results; while in reality it only meant that the remaining few persons behind the Foundation have changed their minds.
However, Chris Lilley of the W3C later explained to Andy Updegrove that CDF is not intended as an office format and is not a suitable replacement for the OpenDocument format. And none of the three remaining members of the foundation are members of the W3C or the CDF working group. Andy Updegrove theorised that the foundation had "decided to turn out the lights" and were simply attacking those that had rejected their proposals to the OASIS TC.
As of November 11, 2007, the official website has been shut down, probably marking the end of the OpenDocument Foundation.
Open standard
An open standard is a standard that is publicly available and has various rights to use associated with it, and may also have various properties of how it was designed . There is no single definition and interpretations vary with usage....
s-based XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
/RDF
Resource Description Framework
The Resource Description Framework is a family of World Wide Web Consortium specifications originally designed as a metadata data model...
document formats for desktop computer use.
Many Members of the foundation were involved in the development of OpenDocument
OpenDocument
The Open Document Format for Office Applications is an XML-based file format for representing electronic documents such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents....
first in the OASIS Office XML Format TC (Technical Committee) and later in the OASIS Open Document Format TC with up to four members of the TC representing the OpenDocument foundation in the TC.
In October 2007, the OpenDocument Foundation controversially switched its support from OpenDocument
OpenDocument
The Open Document Format for Office Applications is an XML-based file format for representing electronic documents such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents....
to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)'s
World Wide Web Consortium
The World Wide Web Consortium is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web .Founded and headed by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations which maintain full-time staff for the purpose of working together in the development of standards for the...
Compound Document Format (CDF)
Compound Document Format
Compound Document Format is a set of W3C candidate standards describing electronic document file formats that contains multiple formats, such as SVG, XHTML, SMIL and XForms....
. The case was unfortunate since the name of the Foundation suggested for the uninvolved reader that they were deeply connected to the format, or originated it, and the change meant an important supporter to get dissatisfied with the results; while in reality it only meant that the remaining few persons behind the Foundation have changed their minds.
However, Chris Lilley of the W3C later explained to Andy Updegrove that CDF is not intended as an office format and is not a suitable replacement for the OpenDocument format. And none of the three remaining members of the foundation are members of the W3C or the CDF working group. Andy Updegrove theorised that the foundation had "decided to turn out the lights" and were simply attacking those that had rejected their proposals to the OASIS TC.
As of November 11, 2007, the official website has been shut down, probably marking the end of the OpenDocument Foundation.
External links
- Official website (via WayBackMachine, archived on Oct 23, 2007) Offline since November 2007., background informations on the controversy between the Foundation and the Open Document Format.