Officeshots.org available in closed beta

Officeshots.org available in closed beta
"Free webservice lets user compare office applications"

                                       's Hertogenbosch/Den Haag, May 19 2009

The Netherlands in Open Connection and OpenDoc Society are happy to
announce the immediate availability of the beta of Officeshots.org, a
free webservice that allows users to compare the output quality of
office applications. The Officeshots project entails both an open source
service framework, and a free online service based on this framework.
The service is now in closed beta, exclusively available to members of the
international OpenDoc Society on http://www.officeshots.org (1). If you wish 
to join the beta program you can become a member or sponsor of the OpenDoc
Society (2).

Officeshots.org was first announced on January 29th 2009, with the beta phase 
of the Officeshots.org service scheduled to become active at the end of 
February or early March. A delay in supporting rendering factories caused the 
original schedule to slip but with support of NLnet, Open IT Netherlands and 
Abicollab.net the project is finally ready to start the beta phase.

Project Lead Sander Marechal (The Lone Wolves Foundation): "At the start
of the beta phase, Officeshots.org is running a number of factories 
implementing GO-OO, OpenOffice.org, Gnumeric and AbiWord. We expect to quickly  
add support for a number of other factories such as Lotus Symphony, RedOffice 
(Chinese), OfficeReader (an ODF viewer for Symbian smart phones) and the soon 
to be released KOffice 2.0" Software vendors and user communities are 
encouraged to add their office solution of choice to Officeshots.org, to make 
its functionality available to a wider audience.

So far development work within the project has concentrated on making a
safe, distributed document rendering environment that allows buyers and
developers to test interoperability in many different applications on
many different platforms. During the closed beta the visual appearance
of the main Officeshots website will be enhanced, and a translation
framework so people can assist in translating Officeshots.org to their
native language. The beta phase is expected to last until the beginning
of June, after which the service will be available freely to anyone.

Officeshots will be put to the test significantly in the first ODF Plugfest 
that will be held June 15/16th 2009 in The Royal Library in The Hague, where a 
large number of ODF implementations (including wellknown names such as 
Microsoft, Google, IBM and Sun, but also upcoming players like ZCubes and 
CelFrame Office) will test their interoperability on invitation by the Dutch 
cabinet in the person of Dutch Minister of Foreign Trade Frank Heemskerk (3).

If you wish to be updated with the latest developments and get the
announcement for the public release, please consider joining out
mailinglist at the following URL:

http://lists.opendocsociety.org/mailman/listinfo/officeshots

(1) If you want to log in with a digital certificate you can do so at
     https://www.officeshots.org.
(2) Join at http://www.opendocsociety.org
(3) http://www.odfworkshop.nl

*** About OpenDoc Society

The goal of OpenDoc Society is to bring together individuals and
organisations with a stake or interest in the openness and future of
documents to learn from each other and share knowledge. OpenDoc Society
offers a platform where developers, publishers, decision makers,
educators, vendors, IT managers, academics, writers, archivists and
other stakeholders kan bring their knowledge together and learn and
collaborate with interesting like-minded people. OpenDoc Society wants
to build local human networks of experts and stakeholders in ODF from
all areas. It want to be a leading organisation in spreading knowledge
about open format like ODF and PDF to society at large, through
publications, workshops, masterclasses, tutorials for developers,
decision makers, users and other stakeholders. It wants to foster and
strengthen the ecosystem around open document formats: from enterprise
content management, assistive software for the visually impaired up to
readers for cell phones and game consoles. OpenDoc Society is supported
by a large number of organisations, including government bodies,
international corporations, educational, cultural and scientific
institutions and NGO's .  If you care about an open information society
and a transparent market, why don't you join?

                                      More info: http://www.opendocsociety.org


Netherlands in Open Connection (Nederland Open in Verbinding)

The Netherlands in Open Connection (NOiV) informs government
organizations about the possibilities of open standards (OS) and open
source software (OSS) and encourages them, where possible to fit into
their information systems. The program is based on the Action programmes
Netherlands in Open Connection, initated by the Netherlands minister of
Foreign Trade and the state secretary of Interior and Kingdom Relations
in September 2007. The program NOiV offers practical support in the form
of information, knowledge and tools for government organizations open
source software can use. The program is executed by ICTU Foundation,
commissioned by the Ministry of Economy Affairs and the Ministry of
Interior Affairs and Kingdom Relations. The activities of the program
are primarily aimed at policy makers and public sector ICT management
and their suppliers. In addition, NOiV has a coordinating role with the
parties from the government and semi-government and the private sector.


                                             More info: http://noiv.nl

*** About NLnet Foundation

NLnet Foundation is a private charity fund supporting open standards and
open source worldwide, and has over the years actively contributed to
(internet) standards, open source projects and subsidiary or enabling
activities such as the development of GPLv3. NLnet foundation is an
independent organisation whose means came initially from interest on a
very substantial own capital formed in 1997 by the sale of the first
Dutch Internet Service Provider. Its private capital ensures an absolute
independent position. The articles of association for the NLnet
foundation state: "to promote the exchange of electronic information and
all that is related or beneficial to that purpose". NLnet believes in
open standards and open source. At the moment, dozens of projects and
organizations are supported financially. Amongst them: research
laboratory NLnet Labs, the Free Software Foundation, OpenDoc Society,
Intelligent Interactive Distributed Systems, and the Internet Society.

                                             More info: http://nlnet.nl