Portuguese Government Adopts ODF as Sole Editable Document Format

According to a press release issued today by the Portuguese Open Source Business Association, the government of Portugal has decided to approve a single editable document format. And that format is not Microsoft’s OOXML. In a move reminiscent of the action by the CIO of Massachusetts that ignited the fiercest standards war of the last decade, the Portuguese government has opted to mandate compliance with ODF, the OpenDocument Format, as well as PDF and a number of other formats and protocols in furtherance of a law passed by the Portuguese Parliament on June 21 of last year. The decision is the latest in a series of actions taken by a variety of European nations in support of all things open: open standards, open source, open data, and more, notwithstanding the success of proprietary interest groups in watering down similar actions at the EU level.