Sun along with IBM announced the availability of the ODF Validator - a tool that validates files against ODF ISO/IEC 26300, ODF v.1.1 and ODF v1.2 - as part of a broader initiative that goes under the name of ODF Toolkit Union.
The ODF Toolkit Union, a new open-source software community project namely aimed at making document software more innovative, versatile and useful for business. At the present stage are available for downloads two SDKs, two tools for processing ODF documents and a conformance tool.
Declarations of conformity to open standards are a self-certification processes, and tools like the ODF Validator (available also in source code form) can help users and consumers to make better informed choices, at least. Public administrations choosing products that are implementing different “flavours” of a standard, can drammatically affect interoperability. That’s why public administrations should ask Standard Setting Organizations to make conformance testing part of the standardization process.
Getting back to the ODF Toolkit Union, as a matter of fact two members don’t make a union. Actually not even the IBM Press room mention the news, despite Michael Karasick, Director of IBM Lotus China Development Labs, gave the announcement at the OOo Conf 2008 in Beijing, spreading also the word about how good is Symphony.
Will the club welcome other vendors?
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