We’re now on the 9 ^th of May and the final version of OOXML is still not be published either by the ISO or the Ecma as they had to do so. This ongoing scandal affects the industry as a whole and proves once again that OOXML has never been an open standard.

The OpenOffice.org project has just released the first « public » beta version of OpenOffice.org 3.0.This first beta version may not support all the expected features that will be included in the stable version but it does give a very good feeling of how the 3.0 will be like. You will find a more detailed list of features on this page. As you can see the 3.0 will sport a number of very interesting and useful features, such as the ability to import PDF documents, switching language inside one document, a new StartCenter, new icons, etc.I wanted to go a bit beyond the list of new features and tell you about the effect that OpenOffice.org 3.0 will have on its users and ultimately on the way we create content share it and stay happily productive in this always-on world.

Perhaps what matters the most with OpenOffice.org 3.0 will not so much be the flurry of new features; perhaps what will ultimately matter is the brand new architecture of OpenOffice.org that has been introduced with this new release. You already knew about the ability to use extensions in order to add features to OpenOffice.org. With the 3.0, OpenOffice.org becomes even more modular, allowing even more interested people to develop their own features on top of the 3.0 platform.In the long run, this completely revisited, rearchitected platform will play an essential part in extending the yield of OpenOffice.org .

The concept of office suite has kept evolving ever since its appearance in the eighties. At first, what mattered was the wordprocessor and the spreadsheet application. Then, Powerpoint came in and started to control our minds, becoming both a tool and a concept. We then learned about the concept of productivity suite, growing the office suite with all kinds of tools, from a PIM module to specific financial applications and elementary document management features.

Today, the paradigm has changed, but it does not necessarily involve the fattening of the whole suite. Rather, I believe that this new paradigm is about creating all sorts of content and sharing it freely. Sharing freely involves two perequisites: The easyness of sharing and the use of open formats, open standards that allow the users to master their own data and content and does not push them into vendor lock-in. This assumption also implies another, subtle point: the boundaries between applications are blurring and the applications themselves become easier to use.What this means leaves some room for interpretation and unveils new, different paths. Let’s see first what these new paths will not be, and second, let’s see what options there are and what are the options Openoffice.org chose.

The new paradigm in office suite rests on the following elements:

• Creation of open content through the use of open and free formats, ideally standards
• Freedom to share and distribute this content
• Ease of use, simplicity

These three elements ultimately make up for an interesting consequence; they don’t just liberate the content and the creativity of users, they also lower significantly the barriers of adoption for people who could never afford this before. In doing so, this paradigm puts forth the urge to enable participation. Ultimately, that’s what office suites should be nowadays: Participation Enablers.

One can understand now why I think MS Office 2007-2008 has already missed this shift of paradigm: The use of proprietary formats and spreading confusion around the concept of openness will not really help in the end. Yet, the latest versions of MS Office suffer from their excessive integration with MS SharePoint, the mother of all office technologies by Microsoft. This CMS/Groupware platform may be very easy to use, but it does create a fortress of formats and DRMs beyond which users are forbidden to go, and share. This centralized process is also very telling of a deprecated mentatlity even before being a compelling offer for certain types of organizations.

The truth here, tools such as SharePoints will fade away, as wikis take the lead. And precisely, OpenOffice.org allows you to export your content in certain wiki syntaxes while choosing directly the server that needs to be accessed. So much for command and control…But lets go back to our topic.

The appearance of online office suites such as Google Docs and Zoho shows a new path and illustrates the shift of paradigm in office suites. Online office suites make it easier to create and share content while making the issues of platforms and applications fall thanks to their online nature. The ability to import and export from and to multiple formats, some of whose being open standards (ODF, PDF) is also present. At the same time, online services such as Slideshare add value to traditional tools.

Nobody wants to have to deal with proprietary barriers of any kind. It is about creating and sharing freely, and ultimately, it is about enabling participation.OpenOffice.org is not an online office suite. But by enabling people to share and to communicate, OpenOffice.org works like a hub for content creation. Its features set covers the full range of functionalities expected by advanced users, and its inherently free nature (in beer and in speech) allows anybody to use it in order to create and share in the easiest way possible.Its extendability not only creates an ecosystem, it creates something more powerful: A community of users contributing to OpenOffice.org in order to serve their needs, and ultimately enriching the codebase.The modularity of OpenOffice.org (turning it into a set of modules running on top of a runtime environment, the URE) also make it possible to turn the overall platform into a RIA (Rich Internet Application) , thus addressing even more use cases.

In any case, OpenOffice.org is on its way to become the hub of your digital content, by enabling freedom; freedom to use, freedom to share, freedome to modify, and freedom to distribute.

Share This

Body modification is a permanent or semi-permanent alteration of the body for non-medical reasons — think spiritual, societal, BDSM play, aesthetic or practical. Body modification has been in practice for at least two thousand plus years—Ötzi the Iceman was found with a fairly large earlobe piercing (1–000 gauge; 7–11mm) and 57 carbon tattoos.

Yesterday I had another piercing done — a vertical eyebrow piercing sitting right beside my first on my left eyebrow. I wanted to get another piercing before I leave for Germany this Sunday. Being my second eyebrow piercing I knew what I had coming and all in all it was a fairly relaxing procedure, as far as piercings go. My latest metallic addition had me reflect over the topic of body modifications again — the image I present to others both at work and in my personal interactions.

These issues came up twice before — when I got my first eyebrow piercing and later when I had my Ashley piercing (an inverted vertical centered labret). Eyebrow piercings are simple to get, quick and easy to heal and generally bruise or swell very little. My Ashley piercing on the other hand left my lip swollen for several weeks, bruised and discoloured. Now that the primary healing is over I’m as happy as a clam; I love it. I consulted my employer, work colleagues, family and close friends about both of the piercings and received mixed responses. Work was open to the idea and didn’t mind whatsoever, family didn’t mind either way and accepted it was my decision whilst most of my friends were supportive and receptive to the idea.

Ultimately it comes down to an alteration of the body that can affect the impressions we leave upon others, particularly first impressions. First impressions are vital to good relationships; as much as we like to think we don’t judge books by their covers our first impressions of someone will shape our reactions and future interactions with that person.

The way we look during social interactions is influenced by many factors. Two that come to mind first include the way we dress (is she wearing a casual t-shirt or smart business wear) and personal hygiene (how clean are his fingernails). Body modification also affects the way we look.

I’ve found little issue with the piercings I have and the way they’ve altered my personal image. The only notable observations are that interactions with those several generations older than myself tend to be more conservative and prone to look less favourably upon visible body modifications. This is obviously something that I needed to weigh up — how much did I want to get the piercings versus how often I would have important business meetings with government types. I don’t want to make accusations that public servants are all conservative, but I think the example works.

On that note working in Canberra means I’ll probably run across a public servant just by walking out the door here in the City. I have a few colleagues who directly work for the government and themselves have a piercing or three, if not a tattoo or something else and have had no issues getting or holding their job. I’m glad that thus far I’ve had no problems in business interactions and happy to rarely hear of prejudicial treatment relating to body modifications, at least here in Australia.

In closing, I’ve also been told that as a “creative type” we’re given a little more leeway in this entire regard and sometimes we’re almost expected to be somewhat more outgoing and expressive.

I just thought I'd drop an update about my favorite Free Software project. :)

Today I got word from Steve (The production manager) from Openmoko Inc. that mass production of the Openmoko Freerunner - the long awaited GTA02 - will begin May 9th, 2008.

So you have 3 steps: build phone. test phone. ship phone.

Then we take orders. I was very adamament about having phones in the disty ready to ship before I opened the web shop.

This means soon, Openmoko Freerunner will be going on sale. :) More great news!

I'll certainly post again when it's on sale, and once I have mine.

The fact is, nobody outside the Ecma and probably ISO knows how OOXML looks like now. It is particularly cumbersome, not so much because that could amount to one more irregularity against the JTC1’s SC 34, but also because it creates yet one more precedent in the long story of anti-competitive practices by Microsoft. At the time this article is being written, there is no sign of OOXML and according to the loosest estimations, we should have seen it on the 2 ^nd of May at the latest.

But there is nothing, neither on the ISO web site, nor on the JTC1’s, while the Ecma and the Microsoft web site habor nothing else than their other usual news on other topics.

Rob Weir is wondering who may be induly favoured by this situation; I am but desesperately resigned to see this kind of irregularities happen. Unfortunately it strikes me as obvious that whatever irregular actions might be accomplished further in the OOXML case, the ISO will not be doing anything. It will carry on the farce, no matter what it takes, and will serve the Ecma (and the Ecma’s main shareholder’s interests) even if that means jumping in the pond of Ridicule.

Today it occured to me that we were getting closer to the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. A defining moment of History always comes with its flurry of anecdotes, quotes, and images, especially when we are close to it. And twenty years is very close on historical timelines. This is how the following sentence popped back in my mind: « Die Partei hat immer Recht »; it means « the Party is always right » with a very subtle nuance that I believe of some importance: The emphasis lies not on the righteousness of the said party (the SED, East-German Communist Party) or the mere affirmation that it always speaks the truth, but it lies in the subtle, deeper sense that the Party owns the right, or defines the law by which it owns the right to judge what is right and what is wrong. If that notion had not been consciously or unconsciously implied in this slogan, then the German sentence would have merely been « Die Partei ist immer richtig », the exact translation in English being « the Party is always right ». The original terms though convey the nuance I describe above through the use of the verb «to have/haben » and the subsequent use of the common noun « Das Recht » (the right, as in human rights), understood in a quasi-legal sense.

Now if you care to ask me, what in blazes does this linguistic considerations have to do with OOXML? The repeated and successful attempts by Microsoft to influence the outcome of the OOXML standardization process at the levels of the ISO’s JTC1 and of the national standards body was in itself unseen and the evidence that some large corporations are ready to do whatever it takes to fulfill their strategic objectives. Yet, the incongruous, unexpected behaviour of the standardization world has given way to a near total impunity for the Ecma and Microsoft. No matter how twisted a situation can be, the JTC1’s SC34 should always be followed, and when the rules do not fit the Ecma, then the rules are ignored or simply changed. At this stage, we do not know the reasons for which OOXML has not yet been published. I’m not even requesting the very final, ISO -stamped version of OOXML, but just the final, post BRM, consolidated version of OOXML. That too does not seem to exist. But worry not, some reasons will be made up, almost on the fly, cunningly lame and incredibly mediocre explanations that will show the utter submission to powerful interests of some inside the SC34 and the complete brainwashing of others.

In a few words like in a thousands, « Die Partei hat immer Recht ».

NB to the people working for Microsoft or for an entity having ties with Microsoft: I do not imply that Microsoft is like the East-German « United Workers’ Party » or that Microsoft is communist in any way (but Steve Ballmer implied that Free Software movement is communism, if you care to remember). Therefore I do not want to hear any threats or requests for public apologies for this blog. I meant what I meant, and said what I had to say. Don’t look for meanings that are not there. This is my mere, personal opinion and I am blessed to live in a country that is a democracy where Free Speech (just like Free Software) is protected and allowed. I am sure you too can appreciate that as well.

Share This

The participate page is always there for pointers, but if you look for more exciting things to work on,  we have plenty of areas where you could have leg space for creativity and autonomous work.

We are still lacking (human) resources to work on the following topics:

• Link button revolution. We’d like to go from the current ugly stack of buttons, to something authoritative, elegant, and simple —think spreadfirefox. We’d be much better off with five sizes and ten buttons, with a single icon.
• Screenshot perfection. We’re looking for extremely well thought-out sets of screenshots for getgnulinux.org and translations, localized in eight languages. (this is ticket #41)
• Precise visit statistics tracking. If you think that you could write a script that outputs, say, the number of Windows visitors who visited at least two pages in the past week, we’d love to hear from you!
• CSS mastership. We’re maniac about accessibility and legibility, but could still do better. Improving font rendition on IE6, making sure things will display fine when we release a Chinese translation, adapting to mobile devices browsers, are things we’re thinking about.
• Linking module. Managing an affiliate system for linking to our websites will be the first milestone of Animador, our grassroots marketing platform. If PHP development is your thing, you might want to have a look.
• Articulate writing. We have just started working on GetFreedomware.com, the upcoming replacement of SoftwareLiberty.com. We are looking for polished, concise, powerful phrases to get the message to everyday visitors. (more to come very soon in the forum).
• Elegant web design. Our Linux FAQ page has grown to be difficult to read and navigate. Accessibility and simplicity are your mottoes? This might be for you.
• Multi-cultural expertise. If you know what it takes to reach the Japanese community, or what kind of domain name would suit an Arabic translation, or how to best manage cross-border variations in languages —well, you can educate us =)

Enthusiastic coulda-woulda-shoulda talkers are easy to find. Participants who get things done are priceless. If you think you can help, feel free to start working, make yourself known, and we’ll hand you the keys. Thousands of daily visitors will benefit from your skills, and you’ll get eternal gratitude from the rest of us! =)

We have not written much in the last weeks, due to a relatively high work load; but I wanted to share a few news about our work.

• First, the second GLM summit is over. Gustavo and myself were able to meet for 4 days in April, which allowed us to work on the roadmap for the current semester, as well as work out many technical decisions.
  We will write more about this, but the main priority that we defined was community growth. This translates into better community tools, more translations, measurement of website growth, more internal communication.
• Our lists of vendors selling GNU/Linux pre-installed computers are growing continuously, which is very encouraging. Both the French (LinuxPréinstallé.com) and English (LinuxPreloaded.com) websites show that things are getting brighter in the USA and in the EU.
• We have the great pleasure to note that translations of GetGNULinux.org are progressing nicely. At the time of writing, the Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese and Russian languages have over 20% of the website translated.

In the background, a myriad of technical improvements, exchanges within communities are getting us ready to grow faster.

A ship flies past a brilliant nebula, on its way home. It cruises past so the crew can take a look at this magnificent natural phenomenon.

A crew of explorers in a hi-tech submercible venture deep into the waters of an alien world hoping to find evidence of life. Despite their sopisticated equipment, a massive animal of unique origin ploughs overhead undetected...

A shuttle orbits the suppose dead world in the Kentares system, but someone or something has left the lights on, on a world that is suppose to be void of any sentience or life.

A tanker heads to a gas giant to claim its funds in extracting stellar gas for commercial use. Its a dangerous job, but one that has to be done. The tanker has seen years and still goes on, chancing its luck.

An individual head home to a maassive futuristic complex, a megastructure catered for one's need, but in the process isolates all and as a result makes them alone amongst the others. True futurte lonliness.

This is a neutron star drawing stellar matter to itself. As a result the substances become spires of materia, or gas and substance - the spires of a cellectial cathedral. This was done to emphasise the vastness and natural beauty of space. I based the idea off the famed Eagles Nest Nebula and made it into the image you see.

A Federal agent spies upon illegal activity, only to be rumbled - and now is on the run for his life, pursued by determined killers - if that is not bad enough, he has to navigate an asteroid field!