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XML in govt workshop scheduled


Johannesburg, 09 Jun 2008

The State IT Agency will host a free workshop to discuss XML standards in government, from 17 to 20 June, at the Tshwane University of Technology.

Public sector adoption has been in the media spotlight over the last few months, with Open Document Format (ODF) becoming a local national standard. SA is also leading the appeal of the ratification of Microsoft Open XML.

The event will focus on the adoption of XML standards in the public sector. It will specifically cover the direction of future work on the development, adoption and implementation of information standards in government service delivery.

The workshop is backed by the e-Documentation workgroup of the Presidential National Commission on the Information Society and Development. Microsoft SA, IBM, Sun Microsystems and the Meraka Institute are sponsors.

Among the speakers are: Patrick Durusau, editor of ODF 1.2 at Oasis; Rob Weir, co-chairman of the Oasis ODF Technical Committee; and Steve Pepper, who represented Norway on the International Standards Organisation subcommittee for document description languages.

Government recently updated its minimum interoperability standard, which maintains it will use open standards. Following that, the South African Bureau of Standards approved ODF as a South African national standard.

Government says the approval of ODF is key to its interoperability standard.

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