Important Political Progress for Open Standards

Following prolonged negotiations, Helge Sander, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, has launched a timetable for the future use of open standards, together with the IT spokesmen of the Danish Parliament (the Folketing).

– Denmark ranks among the leading countries in the world in terms of using open standards. Now we are ready to take the next great step and introduce mandatory standards, says Helge Sander.

The timetable aims to ensure that the introduction of open standards will be of benefit to society as a whole, and that the individual authority will not experience increased IT costs as a result of the new mandatory standards.

The timetable is a follow-up on the Folketing's adoption of Parliamentary Resolution B103 of 2 June 2006 regarding the use of open standards for software in the public sector.

Based on the reports subjected to public consultation and debates during the past year, seven sets of standards will be mandatory from 1 January 2008.

With regard to standards for document interchange, the timetable states that two standards will be mandatory for an initial test period of one year from 1 January 2008.

During the test period, public authorities must be able to receive both standards, known as ODF and OOXML, and new procurements must be able to handle at least one of the two standards. The test period will be evaluated during the first half of 2009 by a third party in preparation for a new assessment by the Folketing.

In the autumn, the Science Minister will report the status of implementing the timetable to the Folketing's IT spokesmen, and at the same time it will be discussed what criteria are to be evaluated in 2009 in relation to document standards.

Science Minister Helge Sander may be contacted via Information Manager Allan Boldt, tel.: +45 33 92 97 39, .