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IDABC – promoting Open Document Formats for European eGoverment services

OASIS Adoption Forum – London, 17-18 October 2005

Barbara HeldIDABC Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General

European Commission

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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.

Disclaimers

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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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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

eEurope Action Plan 2005

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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,…)

IDABC - supporting interoperability

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i2010eEurope 2005

political impulse

IDABC Programme

OthersMember State Administrations

target groups

EU Institutions

INTEROPERABILITY FRAMEWORK

Semantic Interoperability Guidelines

Architecture Guidelines

Infrastructure for PEGS

Other documents

development and maintenanceIDABC

Management Entity

Other stakeholders

Member States

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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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

Interoperability for European eGovernment II

The requirements of administrations are high …

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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 IDABC’s 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 industry’s 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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Contact:

Dr. Barbara Held

IDABC, Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General, European Commission

barbara.held@cec.eu.intwww.europa.eu.int/idabc