The Document Foundation announces a Certification Program

The Document Foundation announces a Certification Program
to foster the provision of professional services around LibreOffice

Berlin, May 7, 2012 - The Document Foundation announces the Certification Program, to foster the
provision of professional services around LibreOffice and help the growth of the ecosystem of the
world's best free office suite. The program is outlined on the following page:
http://www.documentfoundation.org/certification.

"The Certification Program will recognize the competence of individuals capable of developing and
supporting LibreOffice, provide integration services around the suite, offer training and
maintenance, and migrating enterprises deployments from proprietary to free software", comments
Italo Vignoli, Member of the Board of Directors of The Document Foundation. "TDF Certification is
an opportunity for sponsors, TDF members and third parties, to build a business around LibreOffice,
to help companies of any kind and size to get the most out of the best free office suite ever".

The Certification Program will be overseen by the Board of Directors, through a Certification
Committee coordinated by Italo Vignoli and composed by 10 people: Olivier Hallot and Charles Schulz
for the Board of Directors; Sophie Gautier and Cor Nouws for the Membership Committee; Stephan
Bergmann, Jan Holesovsky,  Tim Janik and Björn Michaelsen for the developer's community; Lothar
Becker and Jacqueline Rahemipour for third parties.

The first certified developers and third parties will be announced in May during LinuxTag (Berlin,
May 23-26), when the Certification Committee will meet for the first time. After the meeting, TDF
will announce the roadmap for certification, including pre-requisites for third parties not
involved in the project, and the first dates for trainings and exams.

About The Document Foundation (TDF)

The Document Foundation is an open, independent, self-governing, meritocratic organization, which
builds on ten years of dedicated work by the OpenOffice.org Community. TDF was created in the
belief that the culture born of an independent foundation brings out the best in corporate and
volunteer contributors, and will deliver the best free office suite. TDF is open to any individual
who agrees with its core values and contributes to its activities, and warmly welcomes corporate
participation, e.g. by sponsoring individuals to work as equals alongside other contributors in the
community. As of March 15, 2012, TDF has over 140 members and well over a thousand volunteers and
contributors worldwide.

Media Contacts

Florian Effenberger (based near Munich, Germany, UTC+1)
   E-mail: floeff@documentfoundation.org - Skype: floeff
Charles H. Schulz (based in Paris, France, UTC+1)
   E-mail: charles.schulz@documentfoundation.org
Eliane Domingos de Sousa (based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, UTC-3)
   E-mail: elianedomingos@documentfoundation.org - Skype: elianedomingos
Italo Vignoli (based in Milan, Italy, UTC+1)
   E-mail: italo.vignoli@documentfoundation.org - Skype: italovignoli
   GTalk: italo.vignoli@gmail.com
Full contact details: http://www.documentfoundation.org/contact/
TDF legal details: http://www.documentfoundation.org/imprint

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Italo Vignoli - The Document Foundation
mob +39 348 5653829 - skype italovignoli
italo.vignoli@documentfoundation.org