The Document Foundation joins OpenDoc Society

Amsterdam, January 12th, 2011 - OpenDoc Society, the global association 
that promotes best practices for office applications, today announced 
that The Document Foundation has become an organizational member. The 
Document Foundation joins other companies, Open Source communities, 
public sector organizations and not-for-profits that are already members 
organizations of OpenDoc Society, such as Cap Gemini, Google, IBM, CWI 
and the Netherlands Department of Defense. OpenDoc Society brings 
together individuals and organizations with a stake or interest in the 
openness and future of documents, to learn from each other and share 
knowledge and best practices about core technologies, available tools, 
policy issues, transition strategies, legal aspects and of course the 
latest innovations.

The Document Foundation promotes the development of LibreOffice, a free 
and Open Source office suite for personal and enterprise productivity, 
with strong ODF support. TDF is independent of any single vendor, but is 
supported by companies such as Novell, Red Hat, Canonical and Google, 
and by major free software projects. LibreOffice is attractive for 
developers because it promotes a fully Open Source development 
environment, based on a mature personal productivity platform, without 
requiring any copyright assignment from contributors.

"We are glad to become part of OpenDoc Society," says Italo Vignoli, a 
member of The Document Foundation's steering committee, "Because we feel 
that the association's work of promoting interoperability between ODF 
implementations and sharing knowledge about best practices, fits 
together well with the mission of The Document Foundation to provide a 
full-featured Open Source productivity tool with strong ODF support. 
Interoperability is something that we -  as a community - have to work 
on together and, with its fostering of events such as ODF plugfests and 
tools like Officeshots.org, OpenDoc Society has been a driving factor in 
this area".

"The Document Foundation has ambitious plans and a strong community, and 
they are bringing more choice to the table for end users. The market for 
office applications is huge, and TDF is ready to claim its rightful 
part. TDF's strong commitment to the Open Document Format as the primary 
driver behind real-world interoperability is commendable, and we are 
very happy to welcome it as a member organization", says Michiel 
Leenaars, Vice-President of OpenDoc Society. "We look forward to its 
ideas and contributions."

*** About The Document Foundation

The Document Foundation has the mission of facilitating the evolution of 
the OOo Community into a new, open, independent, and meritocratic 
organization within the next few months. An independent Foundation is a 
better reflection of the values of our contributors, users and 
supporters, and will enable a more effective, efficient and transparent 
community. TDF will protect past investments by building on the 
achievements of the first decade, will encourage wide participation 
within the community, and will co-ordinate activity across the community.

*** About OpenDoc Society

OpenDoc Society brings together individuals and organizations with a 
stake or interest in the openness and future of documents, to learn from 
each other and share knowledge - about core technologies, available 
tools, policy issues, transition strategies, legal aspects and of course 
the latest innovations. Whether you are a developer, publisher, 
decision-taker, educator, vendor, IT manager, academic, writer or 
archivist, or simply an involved citizen, OpenDocSociety.org provides a 
bridge for you to meet interesting like-minded people, to learn from and 
to cooperate with. OpenDoc Society is supported by a significant number 
of organizations

The OpenDoc Society is an initiative that was launched in 2007 by a 
number of individuals from various sectors of society, including 
science, education and research, software vendors, Open Source 
communities, the arts, and government. The OpenDoc Society wants to 
build local human networks of experts and stakeholders in ODF from all 
areas. It want to be a leading organization in spreading knowledge about 
open document formats, such as ODF and PDF, to society at large, through 
publications, workshops, masterclasses and tutorials for developers, 
decision-takers, end users and other stakeholders. It wants to foster 
and strengthen the ecosystem around open document formats - from 
enterprise content management, to assistive software for the visually 
impaired, to readers for cellphones and game consoles.

Media Contacts for TDF

Florian Effenberger (Germany)
Mobile: +49 151 14424108 - E-mail: floeff@documentfoundation.org
Olivier Hallot (Brazil)
Mobile: +55 21 88228812 - E-mail: olivier.hallot@documentfoundation.org
Charles H. Schulz (France)
Mobile: +33 6 98655424 - E-mail: charles.schulz@documentfoundation.org
Italo Vignoli (Italy)
Mobile: +39 348 5653829 - E-mail: italo.vignoli@documentfoundation.org

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Italo Vignoli - The Document Foundation
E-mail: italo.vignoli@documentfoundation.org
Mobile +39.348.5653829 - VoIP: +39.02.320621813
Skype: italovignoli - GTalk: italo.vignoli@gmail.com

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