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27/06/2006 Belgian government to adopt ODF |
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The Belgian government has ordered all of its departments to use the Open Document format for internal communications. The proposal is expected to be approved by Belgium's Council of Ministers on Friday. From September 2008 onwards, all document exchanges within the services of the Belgian Government will have to be in an open, standard format.
Originally, the Belgian government was looking at ODF and Microsoft's Open XML format on an equal footing. However, it abandoned that idea in preference of ODF, probably because there isn't any software that can run Open XML yet.
The rationale is to prevent government agencies becoming dependent on any one supplier.
A spokesperson for the Belgium government said that once an OpenXML product is available and is proposed to the ISO, it is possible that the format will also be accepted.
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