[Fsfe-uk] Open Document Fellowship launched

[Ian Lynch]

Embargoed until 2000 UTC

OpenDocument Gathers Worldwide Support
10 October 2005

The Open Document Fellowship promotes the new internationally agreed
standard for digital documents, Open Document Format (OpenDocument). The
Fellowship, formed in September, has attracted support and interest from
around the globe. 

The Fellowship's aims include providing factual information about the
Open Document Format, such as the degree to which companies and their
products are committed to supporting the format, and making sure that
OpenDocument can be always supported by any software application or
company. The organisation also supports the development of software
tools to complement the format.

Founding members include Gary Edwards (OASIS OpenDocument Technical
Committee), Mark Taylor (Executive Director of the Open Source
Consortium), and Richard Rothwell (Chair of SchoolForge UK).

Founding member Adam Moore, Friends of OpenDocument Inc., said:

"As a true Open Standard, OpenDocument is available for the benefit of
all. It levels the competitive playing field and provides wider
opportumities for innovation, diversity and choice. This choice and
diversity is a natural evolutionary consequence of the market maturity
of general productivity software. We believe all responsible citizens in
the digital market place will embrace ODF as the central focus for
document production."

Users whose data is stored in OpenDocument will never again face the
problem of not being able to access data because the application that
created it is no longer available to them. Open standards already enable
users of different computer systems (both hardware and software) to
access the Internet and communicate with each other. ODF enables users
of different computer systems to freely exchange and use files.

For more information, see the Fellowship's website,
http://opendocumentfellowship.org 

Press Contact Information 

address@hidden or find your regional contact at
http://www.opendocumentfellowship.org/Main/Contact

-- 
Ian Lynch <address@hidden>
ZMSL