Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 19th Oct 2005 17:36 UTC
A lot of misinformation about the OpenDocument digital format has started to appear in the mainstream media and interest groups. Answers to many questions on the topic already have appeared, but they are written by techies for techies. This article is different, however. You can print out this one and pass it on to everyone, regardless of their computer skill level.
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The feature list is irrelevant--what is being stressed here is the importance of using an open standard. The standards committee can add needed features at any point in the future through an open process.
You're right that one cannot be guaranteed that an application will always be around. That is not what is being said. The important thing being addressed here is that the *way* to read a file format is documented and can be implemented by anyone, anytime.
Open standards mean that there are no patents locking others out, no stipends raising the barrier of entry, and no guesswork required to unravel the case of the mystery file format.
Open standards benefit *every* user. It's your data after all. Shouldn't you have the capability to extract it from your computer at any time without having to rely on the goodwill of some corporation? Shouldn't you have the means to retrieve the information that you have meticulously backed up for years, even if the progam you originally used to create it is not available for your current operating system?
Access to data is taken for granted by so many users all too often. The reality is that there is no reason in 2005 to continue being bound and controlled by closed standards. FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, Ogg Theora, Speex, Open Document, Jabber, SVG, PDF, PNG: Open standards are here--waiting to free users, to promote interoperability, to enable developers. All it takes is for us to *use* them.