ODF Interoperability Workshop
Speech by Minister for Foreign Trade Frank Heemskerk at the Interoperability Workshop on 15 June 2009 in The Hague.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to explore two questions: what brings you here? And what brings me here?
What brings you here?
The ODF Interoperability Workshop is being held today and tomorrow. We all agree that open source software and open standards are the way we should go. And that government institutions must have the technology to support ODF files for reading, writing and sharing documents. We have already achieved some good results:
- The Province of Groningen is now testing the open source office package OpenOffice.org at 50 workstations as part of a pilot.
- St. Antonius Ziekenhuis, which comprises hospitals in Nieuwegein and Utrecht, announced in November 2008 that open source software would be used in 2800 desktop computers and all back-end systems.
- The website SocialeKaarten.nl lists the entire range of care, welfare and housing services available to the public at a single digital location. This site was constructed based on the 3 'O's': open standards, open source software and open content.
In order to promote these initiatives, and others, ODF applications must have the right degree of interoperability. During this workshop, we are going to test that interoperability. We also have to come up with a joint course of action for developing effective ODF support in each other's products and we must establish a testing framework. As you can see, we have more than enough to do!
What brings me here?
In making ODF support compulsory, the Netherlands can rightly be called a forerunner. This workshop is an example of this, because it is the place to share knowledge with each other.
Of course it is the job of the Ministry of Economic Affairs itself to set a good example. We recently set up the website diensten-richtlijn.nl using Joomla, an open source CMS. Joomla has all kinds of templates we can use; the fact that these can be reused will save the government a lot of money. Also, other ministries can benefit from what we've learned and apply it to their own situations. This is still happening too infrequently, which is why I want to call on them to get the ball rolling when it comes to open standards and open source software and come and ask us about our experiences!
In 2008, my colleague from the Ministry of the Interior and I gave orders for the establishment of the NOiV programme office and an NOiV action plan. That plan is indicative of how the Dutch government is implementing the goals of promoting interoperability between businesses, government bodies and citizens, increasing the independence of suppliers in IT use and creating a level playing field on the software market.
For the last year, the programme office has been working hard to promote knowledge sharing and education, monitoring and tools that enable government organisations to implement open standards and open source software themselves. The NOiV office also provides recommendations for complex tendering procedures and registers people's complaints about closed standards.
Moreover, the NOiV office has also distributed USB sticks with open source software to all municipalities, provinces and water boards to enable them to support ODF effectively. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the programme office for its tireless efforts and hard work!
In order to realise these goals, open standards have been made compulsory. In addition, open source software must be given equal consideration in tendering and procurement procedures compared to other software. If they are equally suitable, open source software must be given priority, based on the principle of "comply or explain". In other words, you either must use open standards or provide a well-founded argument as to why it is not possible to do so, and state when they will be implemented.
The use of open standards is common place in the internal assessment process in government organisations that occurs prior to IT tendering procedures. My ministry introduced a Standardisation Forum, which has drawn up a list of open standards based on the "comply or explain" principle in close collaboration with users and other interested parties. The list of standards is growing longer and it has been shown that the use of these standards significantly increases interoperability and supplier independence.
One important mainstay of the open standard policy is the introduction of ODF as a format for reading, writing, sharing, publishing and receiving documents. All government bodies are now required to support this standard.
Many, although not all, government organisations are already using open document standards. So why aren't they all using them? Because they aren't sure it's a prudent thing to do. On the one hand, their doubts are practical in nature: they wonder what supplier's products would support, how much the implementation process would cost and how complex it would be, and how their staff should be trained. On the other hand, they also have doubts about the technical side: they wonder whether open standards are mature, stable and reliable enough and how compatible they are. Government organisations require more information from suppliers and service providers. I'd like to ask you to stop and consider this!
Additionally, I want to stress the importance of knowledge sharing. Knowledge sharing isn't something that should be confined to just one country - it should be much broader. For example, there has been a lot of attention focused on ODF in Europe - there is a European working group for open document formats.
The Dutch government has gained support for its policy regarding open standards and open source software within the consultative bodies in Brussels, which has been done by increasing contacts with policymakers and the open source software communities in the leading countries in the field, such as the Scandinavian countries.
The next step is to coordinate the various implementation methods on the market, so that users are more willing to employ ODF. Our challenge is to convince users that:
- ODF promotes interoperability; processing and exchanging documents with IT applications supports the core processes of all government organisations.
- Open document standards such as ODF are crucial to long-lasting document use.
- ODF helps the government improve its services, because it enables citizens and businesses to download and upload documents and forms in any format they choose
- ODF promotes supplier independence: with open standards, it is easier to switch to other IT options
- It is easier for new parties to compete in the government's tendering and procurement procedures because ODF facilitates supplier independence. This, in turn, promotes innovation.
As you see, ladies and gentlemen, it is unthinkable that ODF will not be universally used. But to make this happen, we need your help and I expect you, the software suppliers, to play a more pro-active role in this effort. The framework you are going to develop will enable us to test the ODF support in each other's products. I appeal on you to go beyond compliancy and help achieve broad-based open standards. Now, having called you to action, I thank you for your attention.