Vulindlela - Open the Path

open document protocol

There is no doubt that the CONSEGI conference held earlier this year was a significant event and the outcomes and resolutions of the discussions held there are starting to have effect in a number of other forums. A modified version of the Brasilia Protocol was circulated and the only issue that countries that were considering signing this document had, is the time-frame that they can commit to. below is the open document protocol.

OPEN DOCUMENT PROTOCOL

PUBLIC PROTOCOL OF INTENTION FOR ADOPTING OPEN DOCUMENT FORMATS

Art. 1 – In accordance with the recommendations proposed by the Asia-Africa coalition through the Jakarta Protocol, and in order to work in a cooperative manner in the application of solutions that generate higher technological and economic independence for the participating countries, the agencies and entities of Direct and Indirect Public Administration, including State-owned Companies and Foundations, Universities, as well as private companies, listed below, propose adopting open file formats for the creation, storage and digital provision of documents of the text, spreadsheet and presentation types.

Art. 2- Open file formats are understood as those that:

I – allow interoperability between the different applications and platforms, internal and external;

II – allow applications without any restrictions or payment of royalties;

III – may be implemented fully and independently by multiple vendors of computer programs, in multiple platforms, without any cost related to intellectual property for the necessary technology;

Art. 3 – Editable office documents are understood as editable electronic documents typically created and handled by computer programs known as office suites. These documents are typically texts, spreadsheets and presentations.

Art. 4 – By voluntarily adopting this protocol, the entity pledges to:

4.1 - Promote the dissemination and use among its employees of the tools required for the adoption of the Open Document Format (ODF) office document format, ISO/IEC 26300 and later Oasis versions, preferably in solutions based on free software.

4.2 - Present to the other entities that are signing this protocol and to society through the Asia-Africa coalition, within XX days, the necessary planning to achieve the following goals:

a) Have its technology environment ready to handle editable office documents in the ODF format.

b) Be ready to receive editable office documents in the ODF format.

c) Use the ODF format, preferably, for editable office documents that will be made available to society.

d) Exchange editable office documents with the other entities signing this protocol through the ODF format.

e) Use the ODF format to create, exchange and store editable office documents generated by the entity.

4.3 - Share with the other entities that sign this protocol solutions that may accelerate the adoption of the ODF format.

Art. 5 – General Considerations:

5.1 - It is up to Africa-Asia Coalition to publish this declaration on it’s website, as well as the publication of any supplements that may be signed.

Jakarta, November 19, 2008.

Signees:

———————————         ———————-

(Name of signee)     (Name of Agency/Company)

*based on the brasilia protocol

Jakarta Declaration

The Jakarta Declaration was read out at the end of the conference by Betti Alisjahbana or the Indonesian FOSS ambassador as the minister nicknamed her. The Declaration was accepted by all present with no objections registered. ( the work of the members of the south-south coalition on the Consegi declaration must be acknowledged)

Jakarta Declaration

Asia-Africa Coalition

Asia-Africa Conference on open source – AAOS

The Asia-Africa Coalition within the Asia-Africa Conference on open source – AAOS (Jakarta, November 18-19, 2008)

FULLY SUPPORTS the Asia-Africa Conference on open source – AAOS –, and COMMITS itself to promoting digital inclusion, disseminating free and open source software and developing e-government programs and solutions aimed at empowering citizens,

ENDORSES the commitment to build a people-centered, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society, as enshrined in the Geneva and Tunis phases of the World Summit on the Information Society,

RECALLS paragraph 29 of the Tunis Commitment, which recognized the need to encourage and foster collaborative development, interoperable platforms and free and open-source software.

RECOGNIZES that free and open source software is a fair and viable alternative for eliminating the digital divide as well as a valuable tool for enabling cooperation among Asia-Africa countries and for encouraging local and independent technological development,

ACKNOWLEDGES that e-government programs and solutions can play a fundamental role in promoting social inclusion, empowering citizens, ensuring the universal delivery of public services and contributing for the technological development of developing countries in an autonomous manner.

RECOGNIZES the increasing tendency, driven largely by multinational private interests, to legitimize a narrative of ownership of ideas in software in the form of patent rights, that runs counter to the aims of social inclusion and collaborative development of free software, and COMMITS to taking action to defend these aims.

ENCOURAGES Asia-Africa countries to share experiences, knowledge and technology in the field of ICTs under innovative models of cooperation,

RECOGNIZES the need for a continued dialogue among all stakeholders on the development, use and dissemination of open standards and free and open source software, particularly in the context of e-government, and, for that reason, DECLARES their strong willingness:

To enhance the Asia-Africa COLALITION through the promotion of a network of dialogue, cooperation and interaction among government and civil society representatives from developing countries and least-developed countries.

To further explore possibilities of exchanging and sharing experiences in e-government with a view to identifying low-cost solutions and tools for promoting digital inclusion, empowering citizens, enhancing the universal delivery of public services and strengthening transparency and efficiency in the public sector.

CONGRATULATES all those involved in the organization of AAOS, in particular RISTEK, and INVITES all interested stakeholders to engage in this joint effort.

Asia - Africa Conference on Open Source

I am attending the “Asia - Africa Conference on Open Source” http://www.aagos.ristek.go.id/ , in Jakarta, Indonesia. The event is being hosted by the State Ministry of Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia (RISTEK) Their flagship programme is IGOS ” Indonesia goes open source”. Jakarta is very humid and it has rained quite a lot since I arrived last night. We have had the opening addresses and I will try and blog on what we have heard so far. I have a speaking slot this afternoon and need to update my slides.

UDM’s response on www.elections.org.za

Karl Fischer has been blogging about the IEC website and he has a response from the UDM about the issue.

kmf:

Dear Mr Fischer

Recent media reports stated that the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC)
website is not coping with the number of South Africans trying find out if
they are registered or where their closest registration point is. Problem
one is connecting to the site: “I have Internet Explorer, but get the
following error message when I logon: Internet Explorer cannot display the
webpage. No matter how many times I refresh… I’ve given up.”

Problem two; the IEC’s website’s exclusion of non-Internet Explorer users.
That is: “I, for instance, choose to use open source software… and I can’t
even access the IEC’s site! Why do I even try? They don’t take me (the
voter) seriously, why should I take them seriously.”

The UDM believes in transparency, dissemination of and access to
information. The IEC should pull its socks up! The Electoral Commission’s
Act, in Chapter 2, has spelled out the IEC’s responsibilities. In the same
chapter, paragraph 5) 2) b) it very specifically legally obliges the
Commission to “establish and maintain the necessary facilities for
collecting and disseminating information regarding electoral matters.” The
IEC is simply reneging on its responsibility.

We know that the internet is one of the quickest and best resources to
access information.  One of the problems facing us this coming election is
voter apathy especially amongst young South Africans, who certainly must be
one of the biggest internet user-groups. The IEC must make accessing
election information and voter education consumer friendly; they cannot
discriminate based on your browser.

The IEC has a responsibility to ensure that all South African Internet users
can access the Commission’s site (at all times) irrespective of browser,
bandwidth or connection device.

Ms Jana Warffemius
UDM Webmaster

Digital Apartheid - update

The human rights commision has sent the IEC a letter of allegation which they need to respond to by the 4th of November. The reference number I have been given is GP/2008/1043/LM for the complaint. Unfortunately, there is the perception that this is a complaint that has been lodged only by a few individuals, and no idea that this complaint represents the frustration of thousands. I think that you need to add your voices, somehow.

GOV websites

The chairperson of the GITO council has requested feedback on how other government websites are doing compared to the IEC website. I would like to ask everyone out there to help compile a list of SA government websites that you have had a problem accessing with a standards compliant web browser. Your input would be much appreciated. I can’t promise what action she will take, if any, but at least we will have an idea of the extent of the problem.

Update: Dwayne Bailey has created a spreadsheet for us

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pTsRJimJxQuau5kY3cQJBFw

OSS & opens std’s workgroup meeting

On Friday the 24th we held the last open source and open standards work group meeting for the year. An important announcement I made at the meeting was that the workgroup has been upgraded to a standing committee. Workgroups are meant to be temporary, after more then 7 years it is clear that open source and open standards are here to stay. The agenda for the meeting was as follows:

1. Opening and Welcome

2. Introductions

3. Ratification of the Agenda

4. Confirmation of the previous minutes

5. Matters arising from the minutes

5.1. Thusong Centres

5.2. Ministers portal

5.3. Sun Staroffice Offer

5.4. MIOS and SABS

5.5 ODF conference/ e-documentation strategy

5.6 XML Workshop

5.7. Procurement principles / OSS tender

5.8. DG’s meeting

5.9. OSS roadmap / flightplan

6. Closure

ODF workshop

Well the ODF workshop is over and the slides are available on the website http://www.odfworkshop.com/agenda.html . There are a few presentations that are outstanding that will be available soon, audio should be available in a week or two.

I was surprised to find myself emotional about a conference but I was really glad to see all the people who had responded to our invitation and also the apologies from those who could not attend for reasons beyond their control. I was also a bit nervous and managed to botch a few introductons (sorry Bob) and the welcome. We missed Bob Jolliffe who was an important part of the electronic documentation committee, the team that put the conference together.

I have not really had the time to sit back and reflect on the event but I hope to share some of my thoughts. There were keywords and themes that stuck out for me and I will jot them down here roughly to help me for future blogs.

“ODF has clearly won” but we need to build on it, the ODF world map is growing, Open standards organisations- what needs to be done - Bob Sutor

Be the change . it’s about collaboration and community, both the hare and the tortoise can win. -Justice Yatindra Singh

You can’t stop what’s coming - Peter Strikx

Build acceptance and commitment - Paulo Maia

Let our voices and requirements be heard - Carlos Machado

Show success stories - Tan King Ing

It’s about sovereignty - Carlos González

Openness is important for security - Martin Bierwirth

Our user requirements should shape future development - Jomar Silva

It’s about strengthening our democracy, we need all players to participate in order to build an inclusive society. It can be done with a hand-full of committed change makers - Arun Madhavan Pillai

“It’s about FREEDOM” - Simon Phipps

Simon’s presentation summed it up nicely for me, we strayed from open standards into open source ocassionaly. But from the perspective that Simon gave, that should not be a problem as we are after the same goal. I can’t mention substituitability because Simon has a trademark on that :)

“ALL IS LOST” and finally the “southern coalition” had a discussion after the conference on Standards Organisations in the light of recent events in document standard setting and we have some ideas on what needs to be done next. watch this space as we will be working on “setting rules for the game”. ( Simon might have a trademark on that, too)

Ministers Opening Address - ODF workshop

The ODF workshop got off to a good start with the Ministers Opening address. Her speech was delivered on her behalf by the Director General Mavuso Msimang. As the Minister was unable to make it at the very last minute.

Speech by the Minister of Home Affairs at the 2nd International ODF conference

Hon NN Mapisa-Nqakula, RSA Minister of Home Affairs, 2nd International ODF Conference, 9 October 2008, Pretoria

It is my privilege to welcome you, IT practitioners and policy makers from Europe, Africa, South America, the Malay Archipelago and the Indian Sub-Continent.  My Department has been tasked to lead the work of our government electronic documentation committee which is in line with our Information Society and Development (ISAD) Plan.  The ISAD plan is  targeted “to establish South Africa as an advanced Information Society in which Information and Information and Communication Technology tools are key drivers of economic and societal development.”  It is the task of my department to provide people with enabling documentation. For us to to do that, information needs to be organised in a way that people can be identified, their status ascertained and thereby their access to public services improved. The ability to implement interoperable information systems that enable us to organise and structure information is key to the department’s success.

The danger of poor interoperability between systems was highlighted  following the tragic tsunami on the 26th of December 2004  when efforts in Thailand to rescue the injured and identify the dead were further frustrated by the lack of integration between the systems of different government agencies.  It is in response to examples like this that the DHA is forging ahead to make open standards a priority.  The emergence of open standards for document formats has further resulted in the ability to process and share documents using formats which have significant impact on the efficiency, interoperability and accessibility of public services. This has important implications for how we understand our democracy. Inclusivity in the context of the emerging South African Information Society requires us to address issues of multilingualism, accessibility, and access to services by under-served communities.

The choice of format used for the representation of documents in government is absolutely critical.

It is critical that we standardise on a single document format for exchange of information within government;
It is critical that the choice is aligned with our free software/open source policy;
It is critical that the document format guarantees our unfettered access to citizen information that we hold in trust;
It is critical that the control of the document format is not dominated by any single vendor, or group of vendors.

On the basis of the above we made the best rational and pragmatic choice available and specified that ODF - the Open Document Format - be used as the format for interoperability of government documents.  This was specified in an amendment to our Minimum Interoperability Standard (MIOS).

I have said that the South African government is committed to making use of open standards.  This is both a pragmatic imperative to avoid vendor lock in as well a democratic imperative to ensure ongoing access to information we hold in trust.  But a standard is not a naturally occurring resource like a tree or a stone, which needs only to be located and controlled in order to be used.  A standard is a socially constructed artefact - an agreement, a product of human consensus.  How that consensus is reached is important.  Who gets to say what and when.  Who gets to listen.  When developing standards for the formatting of documents in the information society, these questions take on a particular urgency.  The storage and processing of South African citizen and visitor information in documents is central to the function of the Department of Home Affairs.  We are aware of the civic importance of standards for documents.

One of the many characteristics of a standard being open is that it allows participation in a transparent and non-discriminatory way.  We participate actively in the development of the ODF through the direct participation of the Department of Science and Technology in the OASIS Office Technical Committee which maintains the standard (note: OASIS is the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards).  This participation forms part of the activities of our e-Documentation committee. 

The South African government has also participated directly in the International Standards Organisation sub committee, SC34, which is responsible for maintaining the ISO edition of ODF.  It participates in ISO through its involvement and membership of technical committees of the South African Bureau of Standards.  Membership and participation in these various technical committees has proven to be costly in terms of time and resources and demonstrates the concrete reality of our commitment to open standards.  It has also given us something of an insight into the workings of the standardisation process in different national and international standards development organisations.  South Africa was particularly frustrated by the acceptance by ISO of an overlapping document specification earlier this year.  The ability and willingness of corporate private interests to dominate the multi-lateral, democratic process of consensus building within ISO has raised significant concerns, both here and abroad.  South Africa appealed the process which was followed, and its outcome, together with India, Brazil and Venezuela.  It is clear that, whilst we continue to engage with ISO through our national standards body, there is much which needs to be done to modernise and reform such international institutions to prevent such problems repeating.

But far from being deterred, our enthusiasm and commitment to open standards in general and ODF in particular, is stronger than ever.  A benefit of gatherings such as this one, is that it provides the opportunity for organisations and state entities with a shared agenda to explore and create new opportunities for international collaboration in the increasingly important space of information standards.  Many of the countries represented here, particularly our brothers and sisters from latin America and Asia, have, like South Africa, made strong commitments to the use of ODF in their various jurisdictions to facilitate interoperability and exchange of information.  Many others are actively considering similar policies.  It would be a great step forward, and a concrete indication of solidarity, if we were to use the occasion of our gathering to develop a protocol of agreement to use ODF as the preferred format for document exchange between our various state and other entities represented here.

I wish you success in your deliberations and trust that our visitors will have the opportunity to enjoy South African hospitality.