Michiel Leenaars (OpenDoc Society) and I organized the first ODF Plugfest in The Netherlands which took place in the Royal Library, The Hague Netherlands on 15-16 June 2009.
Its goal was to bring together implementors of OASIS OpenDocument Format/ISO 26300 to test and discuss implementation issues of ODF with each other. All ODF implementors and/or those looking into the matter were invited to participate in this event organized by the Dutch government and OpenDoc Society.
The workshop was meant for people who write and architect the code to handle the actual ODF in applications – desktop editors and viewers, online apps, mobile, etc. Participants should represent every major teams behind the various competing ODF products, their direct (technical) management and community leaders, as well as the members of the ODF OIC committee.
I managed to sent all invitees a personal invitation from the minister for Foreign Trade, Frank Heemskerk, to participate in this two day interoperability event on open document standards which emphasized the importance of the event.
This event was my final deed for the NOiV office because I was offered a great opportunity to work on the open source portfolio of my current employer Ictivity. This plugfest was a great way for me to say goodbye to all people involved in the e-government and open (document) standards scene. On day 2 I did a presentation about the current state of ODF in The Netherlands and how to move forward with the ODF policy.
This plugfest formula was such a succes that more ODF Plugfests followed afterwards and the concept was being reused for other standards testing setups. The second Plugfest took place in Orvieto thanks to the passion and persistent help from Roberto Galoppini. The third plugfest took place in Granada, Spain organised by CENATIC.
Currently there is even a fourth plugfest in the works which is being advertised at www.odfplugfest.be and organised by Bart Hanssens, an interoperability expert working at Fedict, working for the Federal Government and responsible for e-government.
So, the wheels are definitely in motion for these ODF plugfests and I am curious what progress has been made since the FP.
“Stamp” by Craig Hauger (prototype7). Image usage is royalty free
