The Australian Government's Information Management Office (AGIMO) has
recently issued a policy for a Common Operating Environment that includes
reference to document formats. The policy and related documents can be
viewed here:

http://www.finance.gov.au/e-government/strategy-and-governance/SIGB-communique-december-2010.html

The policy includes the statement (page 10) that the Office Productivity
Suite 'must support the Office Open XML file format as defined by ECMA-37'
... 'to standardise on a file format to
facilitate the exchange of information between agencies.  This does not
preclude the use of other file formats.'

This comment has resulted in a range of responses on AGIMO's blog posting
here:

http://agimo.govspace.gov.au/2011/01/21/back-to-the-future-another-chance-to-influence-coe-development/

Most of the comments were around why AGIMO seemed to be promoting OOXML
(ISO/IEC 29500 “transitional”) instead of ODF (ISO/IEC 26300:2006) as the
common standard for creating and storing documents.

One of the reasons cited by AGIMO is that, based on a survey of 265,000 PC
operating environments across Australian Government agencies, the current
install base of 71.5% XP/Office 2003 simply doesn't support ODF (although
many many commentators noted the plug ins available), so they 'have to go'
with the 'not quite ready' Microsoft standard to 'maintain compatibility'.

AGIMO noted that '.. the Office Open XML format was chosen as it provides
the greatest level of compatibility with the current install base and legacy
documents. It notes that the Office 2007 format is based on the ECMA-376 1st
edition and the Office 2010 default format is based on the ISO/IEC 29500
“transitional” standard; the ISO/IEC 29500 “transitional” standard is very
close (in practical terms) to ECMA-376 1st edition. Because of the
similarity between the standards, files created in Office 2010 can be used
without significant issues in Office 2007.

Colleagues can read the comments on the blog that relate to the benefits of
using one company's format over another.

Other responses on the blog touch on records management and archives and
include the following points:

- The 'real' problem of having to migrate millions of legacy documents (from
existing formats) and whether it should be to either ODF or ECMA-376 (1st
edition) OR ISO/IEC29500.
- Delaying an ODF standard ... will cause further hardship for the
preservation of government records .. (and) if the government generates its
documents in OOXML, then everything will have to be converted to be
archived. It would be a shame not to be able to use the same format for
working documents and the archive.
- The rest of the world is going ODF. 37 national governments have adopted
as the sole standard for exchanging office documents. It is also mandatory
within NATO and its 26 member countries.


Andrew Warland
Sydney, Australia
(My views entirely)

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