khiranoの日記： OOO4周年Ian版

“OpenOffice.org is the most important open source project in the world.” These words, spoken by Miguel de Icaza on the occasion of the first anniversary of Sun Microsystem's gift to the community are more true now than ever before. Four years on, OpenOffice.org has established itself as the ubiquitous icon of open source productivity and the key to its future. Running on all major platforms, and localised in more than 30 languages, OpenOffice.org is having a global impact that just keeps on growing. Tens of millions use the application daily, thousands contribute through the community website and mailing lists hosted by CollabNet. With more than 30 million downloads and inclusion in millions more through RedHat, SuSE, and Mandrakesoft Linux distributions, OpenOffice.org is being taken up by governments and businesses throughout the world. More than a product, OpenOffice.org is a thriving community providing freedom to participate, freedom to learn and freedom to contribute. City governments and national administrations from Munich in Germany, to France in Europe have chosen to join the OpenOffice.org community, not just because the software lowers their operating costs but because of their vision for the future concerning technological change. [“Quote, from French admins, if possible: We moved to OpenOffice.org wanting an application our users could learn immediately and our citizens could freely obtain. OpenOffice.org has proven more than we anticipated, and its future exciting.”] And what does that future hold? An application that bridges not just the proprietary and open-source world but also bridges the digital divide? An application which, along with its enhanced derivations, such as StarOffice, will become the default productivity suite for businesses and governments from Amsterdam to Zanzibar? An application that uses an internationally standardized file format and an open production process? No, it so much more than this. Its a Community that will become the symbol of social enterprise in the 21st Century, where students learn by making valuable contributions to World resources, where corporates invest to reduce their own overheads as well as those of their competitors increasing global efficiency, where governments take back control of their own documents and the technologies used to produce them. The rate and breadth of development of OpenOffice.org is a truly 21st Century phenomenon. The coming year will see version 2.0 and almost certain endorsement of the file format by the International Standards Organisation (ISO). Standardized file formats mean documents created by the next generation of OpenOffice.org, will be vendor neutral with no possibility of vendor lock-in. A new era of consumer choice, consumer education and consumer participation.