IDABC promoting Open Document Formats for European eGoverment services

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OASIS Adoption Forum London, 17-18 October 2005

• IDABC promoting Open Document Formats for
  European eGoverment services

Barbara HeldIDABC Enterprise and Industry
Directorate-General European Commission
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Disclaimers

• This presentation provides technical information
  on the IDABC programme and the eGovernment
  actions of the unit I work for. This
  presentation should not be considered as an
  official Commission position on anything.
• Neither the European Commission nor any person
  acting on its behalf is responsible for the use
  that might be made of the information contained
  in this presentation.

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Overview

• Interoperability for European eGovernment
• (IDABC mission)
• Open Standards
• (definitions, background, EU perspectives)
• Open Document Format
• (Member States, IDABC activities)

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... in a few words

• IDABC Interoperable Delivery of pan-European
  eGovernment Services to Public Administrations,
  Businesses and Citizens
• Programme of the European Commission
• Setting up trans-European networks (TESTA,
  sTESTA)
• Funding sectoral networks / services (Projects of
  Common Interest PCIs)
• Making available generic services and common
  tools (Horizontal Measures HMs) in support of
  pan-European interoperability ?guidelines
• Implementation of PEGS prioritised pan-European
  eGovernment Services
• Budget Ca. 28 Mio Euro p.a. / Duration 2005 -
  2009
• Managed by the IDABC unit in DG Enterprise and
  Industry

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eEurope Action Plan 2005
An Information Society for everyone the
Commission will issue an agreed interoperability
framework to support the delivery of pan-European
e-government services to citizens and enterprises
It will recommend technical policies and
specifications It will be based on open
standards and encourage the use of open source
software
Turning the European Union into the strongest
IT-based economic area by 2010
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IDABC - supporting interoperability

• Set of actions
• Guidelines and studies, such as the European
  Interoperability Framework for pan-European
  eGovernment Services (EIF) or the Architecture
  Guidelines, which define rules and principles for
  collaboration.
• Specifications (eLink, eProcurement, )
• Infrastructures for interoperability (TESTA,
  eLink, XML Clearing-house, Bridge CA,)

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Interoperability Guidelines
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Interoperability for European eGovernment I
European administrations

• Potential (inter-)actors 25 Member States,
  sectoral administrations at local, regional and
  national levels, businesses citizens
• All administrative processes will be ICT-based in
  the long run ICT is vital for society
• ... are a complex challenge
• Little chance for harmonisation (central
  solutions)
• Interoperability between independent partners
  (technical, organisational and semantic)

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Interoperability for European eGovernment II
The requirements of administrations are high

• Availability must be guaranteed, high reliability
  
• Security of systems and transactions
• Accessibility for all partners no matter what
  software they use
• Sustainability Long-term availability/support of
  software and solutions low risk of investement
• That includes independence from vendors (no
  lock-in)
• Good/calculable cost-benefit relationship
• Scalability of solutions / reusability of
  applications

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Standards for European eGovernment
European public administrations

• ... need common specifications and standards to
  implement the interoperability of their
  processes, organisations and systems.
• The specifications have to be state-of-the-art
  (normally ICT industry standards), in order to
  be compatible with costumers and reduce risks.
• The standards have to be cheap and easy to
  implement, so that they will be adopted easily.
• The administrations should stay in control of
  standards, which have been developped by public
  organisations (semantic specifications)

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Definition of Open Standards

• According to IDABCs EIF Open Standards are
• adopted and managed by a non-profit organisation
  and open to all interested parties
• fully published, and specifications are available
  without or for a nominal charge.
• Intellectual property is irrevocably made
  available on a royalty free basis.
• There are no constraints on the re-use of the
  standard.

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An Open Standardfor Document Formats

• ODF is paramount to administrations
• because their main good with is information.
• because this information is mostly sealed in
  documents (unity of content and layout).
• because they want to exchange these documents
  with other administrations, businesses, and
  citizens regardless of the platforms being used.
  
• because they want to collaborate on documents
  (PDF will not do it)
• because they have to archive documents for long
  periods of time.

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What IDA has done ...

• IDA has promoted ODF
• with a study on the compatibility of the dominant
  office suite with Open Office.
• by preparing the TAC (IDA management committee
  involving high-level Member States officials )
  recommendations for the use of an open document
  format in European administrations.
• by collecting and publishing industry statements
  commenting on the TAC recommendations.

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Towards an Open Document Standards for eGoverment
Progress In June 2005 the OASIS Open Document
was voted to be standard.
Question Why does IDABC not promote the OASIS
Open Document for Office as Open Document Format
for European administrations now??
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ICT standards in the EU

• Decisive factors
• Directive 98/34/EC of the European Parliament and
  the Council of 22 June 1998 laying down a
  procedure for the provision of information in the
  field of technical standards and regulations
• European standardsation bodies (ETSI, CEN,
  CENELEC)
• Attitude towards industry bodies (W3C, OASIS)
• De facto standards in administrations (MS
  Windows)
• European procurement law (tendering ICT)
• IDABC definition of open standards for eGov

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Directive 98/34

• What is a standard?
• Only specifications issued by public
  standardisation bodies are standards
• IPR models of the European standardisation bodies
  are not compatible with the IDABC open standards
  definition
• From the perspective of the European Commission
  OASIS Open Office is not a standard!
• And Only public standards can be referred to in
  calls for tender

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Trends in EU standardisation

• Revision of Directive 98/34 ...
• Discussions about special requirements of ICT are
  on-going
• A study will investigate industrys and other
  stakeholders interests and make recommendations
  (starting January 2006)
• Modified approaches to the openness of
  processes and IPRs are theoretically possible
• Attitude towards industry standardisations bodies
  may change

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IDABC plannings ...

• IDABC will continue to promote ODF
• with a study on plug-in filters for office
  suites, which produce and retrieve document in
  the OASIS format.
• a preliminary workshop with expert in the field
  took place in June 2005.
• survey among the Member States about ODF
  activities at the national level.

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Towards an Open Document Standard for eGoverment
Progress In Fall 2005 OASIS has submitted the
Oasis Open Document standard to the ISO
standardisation process.
Question This is a public standardisation
body.Will the IDABC promote the ISO Standard?
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• ContactDr. Barbara HeldIDABC, Enterprise
  and Industry Directorate-General, European
  Commission barbara.held_at_cec.eu.intwww.europa.eu
  .int/idabc