French and Danish Governments Analyze ODF and OpenOffice
CNet’s News.com writes French government report lauds ODF.
Not only is France very enthusiastic about using ODF for internal government needs (as evidenced by over 400,000 government PCs being migrated to OpenOffice), but it’s also interested in heartily promoting ODF to other EU member states.
“A member of the French Parliament has prepared a report for Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin which recommends that France mandate the use of the OpenDocument format, or ODF.
According to French news reports, the study was commissioned one year ago and recently presented to de Villepin by Tarn Bernard Carayon.
He recommends that the French government “propose to its European partners to systematically favor open standards and, as the first example, to mandate the international ISO format ODF for the creation and diffusion of all official document exchange at the European level.”
Meanwhile, Denmark has been eyeing and analyzing the cost savings of OpenOffice.org over the forthcoming Microsoft Office 2007. CIO Magazine reports Study: Danish Gov’t Can Save With OpenOffice:
“The Danish government could save about 125 million Danish kroner (US$21 million) over the next five years if it adopted the OpenOffice.org productivity software instead of upgrading to Microsoft’s Office 2007 suite.”
Enhanced interoperability and huge cost savings are the one-two punch that ODF and OpenOffice can provide governments and other large organizations. The market is going to shift soon.