[boston-pig] ODF what's in it for you?

[Doug Napoleone]

Sorry for sending this out soo late.

Mark Withington who runs the BostonPHP group informed me of their April 4th meeting and I think its of interest to the python group as well.

The topic is: ODF what's in it for you?

Speaking are Tim Vaverchak (Manager of Shared Services from the Commonwealth of MA IT Division) and Greg Rundlett (Technical Services Manager from OASIS) 

http://www.bostonphp.org/component/option,com_gigcal/task,details/gigcal_gigs_id,23/

It is held at the IBM Lotus building in cambridge (directions can be found on page linked above).

The Open Document Format (ODF) standard has been developed by a variety of organizations and is publicly accessible. This means it can be implemented into any system, be it open source or a closed proprietary product,without royalties. The ODF is intended to provide an open alternative to proprietary document formats so organizations and individuals can enjoy document portability, a common taxonomy and vendor independence.

Public entities (e.g. federal, state and local governments) have a unique obligation to their customers (i.e. the taxpayer) that private sector enterprises do not. From accessibility, to availability, to archiving, public documents must withstand a higher level of scrutiny all the while operating within the confines of strict public budgets. ODF plays a crucial role filling that requirement.

Join BostonPHP along with Tim Vaverchak (Manager of Shared Services from the Commonwealth of MA IT Division) and Greg Rundlett (Technical Services Manager from OASIS) discuss the Commonwealth's business reasons for deploying ODF and the technical/PHP methodology to access, manipulate and create ODF documents.