Yet the politics of Open Standards are far from boring. Right ahead of Document Freedom Day, not one but two hot issues are flaring up in the European Union.

The first is the European Interoperability Framework (EIF). This used to be a recommendation by the European Commission to use Open Standards and Free Software in the public sector. The Commission is currently revising the text. FSFE has seen the latest version, and it looks bad. Instead of showing European countries how to make their public sector IT systems work together thanks to Open Standards, as the original EIF did, the current version basically says “do whatever you feel like”. If the EU member states adopt this version, there will be no further push for Open Standards and open document formats in their public sector.

The second issue that is hot in Europe right now is the Digital Agenda. Neelie Kroes, newly installed as head of the Directorate General (somewhat like a ministry) for the Information Society (INFSO), is proposing an ambitious policy framework. The version we have seen talks about the importance of Open Standards and public sector procurement:

Procurement practices and rules for ICT products and services must be adapted to ensure that public authorities – including EU institutions – can make the best use of the full range of open standards. Interoperability across all policy fields, notably eHealth, eGovernment, Green ICT, and cloud computing-related initiatives must also systematically be promoted.

There is also an explicit link to the EIF revision:

An update of the European Interoperability Framework will be an important step in this regard.

As far as we know, this sort of thing doesn’t sit well with everyone in the European Commission. DG INFSO appears to be under huge pressure from other DGs to remove the reference to Open Standards from the text, and make it less ambitious overall.

FSFE is active on both issues, talking to policy makers and calling public attention to the problem. What’s at stake here is the fate of Open Standards in Europe’s public sector in the coming years.

This makes Document Freedom Day even more important. This is a day where we can show why Open Standards and open document formats in the public sector matter to us all.

This is just what people in Romania have done last week. Their public administrations are using proprietary file formats, making life difficult for Free Software users. So these activists went and told their public administration: “I can’t read your documents!”

It looks like they had a great day out! More images here.

Home Remedy Colon Cleanse

There were 205 registered DFD Teams that organised multiple events and activities. These ranged from taking Document Freedom to the streets in Switzerland [1] over mini-conferences in Brazil [2] or Nepal [3], a prize for the German Federal Foreign Ministry [4] to participation of Senator Kate Lundy in Australia [5]. On the DFD front page [6] we keep adding flags for all the countries with links to the many activities as the reports keep coming in. [7]

“We are very happy about the success of this first Document Freedom Day,” says Ivan Jelic, DFD Coordinator. “This has been a collaborative effort by many people around the world and I would like to thank everyone who has contributed. Working with all of you has been a true pleasure!”

Graham Taylor Director of OpenForum Europe: “The support for DFD was quite remarkable and emphasises yet again just how important the topic is to governments, business and the citizen. OpenForum Europe welcomes the announcement of DFD’09. One thing we can be sure is the interest won’t die down.”

After the DFD is before the DFD. Preparations for DFD ‘09 are going to begin very soon. Mark your calendars: March 25th 2009 is going to be yet another great day for Document Freedom!

[1] http://download.fsfeurope.org/pictures/DFD08-ZRH
[2] http://dfd.espiritolivre.org
[3] http://documentfreedom.org/FOSS_Nepal_Community
[4] http://documentfreedom.org/2008/Germany/Berlin
[5] http://documentfreedomdaysydney.googlepages.com/
[6] http://documentfreedom.org
[7] http://documentfreedom.org/2008

How you can get active

The Document Freedom Day is a collaborative effort.

You can make a difference by linking to http://documentfreedom.org, generate your own artworks or use the ones available at http://documentfreedom.org/Artwork.

You could also print out some of the DFD leaflets at http://www.documentfreedom.org/2008/DFD_Starter_Pack#Leaflet and give them to your co-workers, family or friends. And if you feel creative, consider taking pictures or small video testimonials that show the world what Document Freedom means to you!

Join us by registering a DFD team and inform us about our activities, or let us know if your organisation or company want to support us.

About Document Freedom Day

The Document Freedom Day (DFD) is a global day for Document Liberation. It is a day of grassroots effort around the world to promote and build awareness for the relevance of Free Document Formats in particular and Open Standards in general.

Document Freedom Day is supported by a large group of organisations and individuals, including, but not limited to Ars Aperta, COSS, Esoma, Free Software Foundations Europe and Latin America, IBM, Google, NLnet, ODF Alliance, OpenForum Europe, OSL, iMatix, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, Inc., The Open Learning Centre, Opentia, Estandares Abiertos.

The list of DFD supporting groups can be found

http://documentfreedom.org/Who

The list of DFD Teams is available at

http://documentfreedom.org/Category:Teams