Søren Thing Pedersen

Now that the rabbit is out of the hat it is time to look into the details of parliament resolution B103.

The reasoning behind the need for open standards is twofold in the resolution text:

1) the public sector’s use of IT solutions that supports open standards will enhance competition.

2) all digital information and data communicated between the public sector and citizens, companies etc. must be available in formats based on open standards.

Ad 1) the comments in the proposal elaborate that “it is a political duty to secure the basis for open competition.” (my translation).

Ad 2) the comments in the proposal elaborate that “it is a political duty to ensure that the use of IT in the public sector ensures the citizens democratic right to freely receive digital information from the public sector and freely send digital information to the public sector.” (my translation).

It is a general resolution on the use of open standards in the public sector by 2008 (or ASAP). Though there are no direct references to ODF the political discussion has more often than not been on the subject of the need for open document format.

In the proposal an open standard is defined as “1) well documented, 2) freely implementable without economical, political or legal limitations in both implementation and use, 3) standardised and maintained in an open proces in an open forum.” (again, my translation). I have noticed that the wording is similar to the definition of open standards from a group of Danish NGOs (in english).

UPDATE: Groklaw has a full translation of the resolution and the comments.

Currently, members of parliament are discussing what impact the resolution might or might not have. This is mainly interior politics. If you are interested in Danish interior politics and the political debate leading to the parliament resolution John Gøtze has it well covered in Openize Denmark, Parliament Orders. In his post you will find an accurate translation of the resolution as well.

Meanwhile, 3 or 4 Danish ministries will join the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation in providing documents in ODF by September.