OpenDocument standardization

The Open Document Format for Office Applications commonly known as OpenDocument, was based on OpenOffice.org XML, as used in OpenOffice.org 1, and was standardised by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) consortium.

The first to initiate the standardisation of what became the OpenDocument standard was the DKUUG standardisation committee on its meeting the 28th August 2001. The first official OASIS meeting to discuss the standard was December 16, 2002; OASIS approved OpenDocument as an OASIS standard on May 1, 2005.

The group decided to build on an earlier version of the OpenOffice.org XML format, since this was already an XML format with most of the desired properties, and had been in use since 2000 as the program's primary storage format. Note, however, that OpenDocument is not the same as the older OpenOffice.org XML format.

According to Gary Edwards, a member of the OpenDocument TC, the specification was developed in two phases. Phase one (which lasted from November 2002 through March 2004), had the goal of ensuring that the OpenDocument format could capture all the data from a vast array of older legacy systems. Phase Two focused on Open Internet based collaboration.

OASIS is one of the organizations which has been granted the right to propose standards directly to an ISO SC for "Fast-Track Processing". This process is specifically designed to allow an existing standard from any source be submitted without modification directly for vote as a 'Draft International Standard (DIS) (or Draft Amendment (DAM)). Accordingly, OASIS submitted the OpenDocument standard to JTC 1/SC 34 Document description and processing languages a joint technical committee of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) for approval as an international ISO/IEC standard. It was accepted as ISO/IEC DIS 26300, Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0 draft International Standard (DIS), and it was published November 30, 2006 as ISO/IEC 26300:2006 Information technology -- Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0.

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