User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

Dr. Matthias Stürmer, Ernst & Young SwitzerlandOctober 14th 2011, LibreOffice Conference, Paris

2User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

Short bio of Matthias Stürmer

Matthias Stürmer studied business administration and computer science at University of Bern until 2005 and finished his doctoral dissertation at the Chair of Strategic Management and Innovation at ETH Zürich in 2009.His research focused on open source communities and firm involvement, the title of his PhD thesis is "How Firms Make Friends: Communities in Private-Collective Innovation".He then worked for one year at Liip AG, a Swiss software company creating agile Internet solutions based on open source technologies.Since 2010 he is Senior Advisor at Ernst & Young in Bern specializing on open source, open government data, and social media.Matthias Stürmer is member of the board of Swiss Open System User Group /ch/open, secretary of the Swiss Parliamentarian Group for Digital Sustainability, and project leader of www.opensource.ch and other open source initiatives.

Dr. Matthias StürmerSenior AdvisorErnst & Young AGBelpstrasse 233001 [email protected]: +41 58 286 61 97Mobile: +41 58 289 61 97


Agenda

1. Why promoting a proprietary format?2. Workshop schedule and participants3. Summary of the workshop4. Results and next steps


Why promoting a proprietary format?

To increase adoption of LibreOffice!


Motivation of the initiative

Currently Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) format is not well integrated in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org.However, this is necessary to successfully complete and maintain migrations towards LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org.Today various public institutions have switched to LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org and fully use the Open Document Format (ODF) internally.Nevertheless citizens, businesses, NGOs, and other public stakeholders continue to send OOXML documents, especially .docx files.These external stakeholders expect that the public institution are able to handle such files.


Major technical issues

Opening OOXML formats is possible with current versions of LibreOffice/OpenOffice.orgUnknown if visualization is conform to Microsoft Office 20XXMost relevant OOXML support issues:

Layout of .docx documents regarding frames, images, tables, enumerations, header/footers etc.Fonts embedding (resulting in wrong or different layout of documents)Comments layout and editing in .docx and .xslxChange tracking within .docx files


Collective action problem in open source projects

“Scratching a developer's itch” does not always work for public administrations because they have different itches.While open source projects bring great advantages for their users, it inherently bears the problem of „collective action“. Although it would be beneficial for all users to implement enhancements in open source projects, no single stakeholder is willing to invest sufficient resources to accomplish this considerable development effort alone while all the other beneficiaries would free-ride on the solution.Therefore often status quo does not represent the optimum.In order to solve this challenge coordinated action among the stakeholders is necessary.


How to solve the collective action problem

Phase 1: Initializationa) Mobilize attention and interest of several open source software usersb) Create clear and common understanding of the issues, ask the expertsc) Aggregate and specify the requirements, prioritize and cluster them

Phase 2: Fundinga) Organize coordination for Request for Proposals (RFP)b) Send out specification to potential implementersc) Do fundraising for the best proposal

Phase 3: Implementationa) Organize project management, sign contracts, start implementingb) Do testing among the open source software users, finalize developmentc) Publish resulting source code, pass it upstream to the open source project


2. Workshop schedule and participants

Who is who


Workshop location and schedule

October 10/11, 2011 at Ernst & Young in Zürich

Day 1:Identification of common issues (users)Technical challenges and innovative solutions regarding OOXML (developers)

Day 2:Specification of use cases regarding requirements and technical aspects (users and developers in groups)Discussion and prioritization of use cases (all)Funding models of implementation phase (users)


Participating organizations

Public InstitutionsCity of Freiburg i.B.City of MünchenCity of JenaSwiss Federal CourtFederal Strategy Unit for IT (ISB)Another Swiss federal agencyCanton of Vaud

Community organizationsAssociation Swiss Open Systems User Group /ch/openAssociation Freies Office Deutschland e.V.(former association OpenOffice.org Deutschland e.V.)Open Source Business Alliance OSBA (merger of Linux-Verband and Lisog)


Workshop participants

Public administration:Rüdiger Czieschla, City of Freiburg Andreas Kawohl, City of Freiburg Andor Ertsey, City of MünchenDr. Jutta Kreyss, City of München Dr. Martin Reinhardt, City of JenaDr. Harro Rosner, City of Jena Marc von Weissenfluh, Swiss Federal CourtDaniel Brunner, Swiss Federal Court

Ernst & Young:Dr. Matthias Stürmer, workshop leaderMario Aeby, assistent

LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org/OOXML:Thorsten Behrens, NovellFlorian Reuter, self-employed developerSvante Schubert, self-employed developerThomas Uhl, Open Source Business AllianceDr. Frank Siebert, Freies Office Deutschland e.V.Lothar K. Becker, Freies Office Deutschland e.V.Mario Wendt, MicrosoftStefan Stüring, KO GmbHTobias Hintze, KO GmbHJos van den Oever, KO GmbH


3. Summary of the workshop

Method on how to bring public administrators and open source developers to collaborate


Challenges

StakeholdersUsers: public institutionsDevelopers: LibreOffice and OOXML filter programmers

ChallengesHuge knowledge gap: terminology, standard specification, structures and processes within public administrations etc.Different perspectives: input oriented vs. output orientedDifferent interests: perfect implementation vs. solving problem

How to bring them and collaborate together?


Example: technical insight for users (like myself ;)

Important difference betweena) error in OOXML filterb) missing OOXML feature within LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

What does that mean?a) Little effort to correct OOXML filterb) Large effort to implement new office feature

Example of not correctly displayed OOXML standard:Alternating row colors of tables within .docx files

Little effort to 'hard format' colors (however loss of information)Large effort to program this feature in office application,missing feature in ODF standard


Structure of a use case


Positioning of the identified use cases

Estimated effort→ defined by developers

1 day

10 days

100 days

1000 days

today ½ year 1 year 3 years

Priority regarding implementation → defined by users (public institutions)

low hanging fruits

specialwishes

possibleshowstoppers

strategic features



4. Results and next steps

“Correct presentation of OOXML documents in open source office applications”


Most urgent use cases - low hanging fruits?

Use case bundle is called “Layout-preserving view of OOXML documents in open source office applications”

Targeted use cases:1. Formatting of frames and images within .docx2. Formatting of tables within .docx3. Formatting of lists and numbers within .docx4. Formatting of comments within .docx and .xlsx5. Font embedding for both OOXML and ODF

Every use case is specified by test documents


Current status of the user initiative

Phase 1: Initializationa) Mobilize attention and interest of several open source software usersb) Create clear and common understanding of the issues, ask the expertsc) Aggregate and specify the requirements, prioritize and cluster them

Phase 2: Fundinga) Organize coordination for Request for Proposals (RFP)b) Send out specification to potential implementersc) Do fundraising for the best proposal

Phase 3: Implementationa) Organize project management, sign contracts with implementersb) Do testing among the open source software users, finalize developmentc) Publish resulting source code, pass it upstream to the open source project


Phase 2: Funding

Funding model “intermediary”:

Problem: Public procurement regulations requires clear results for spoken money Funding partner 1

Funding partner 3

Funding partner 5Funding partner 4

Funding partner 2

ImplemetationFunding

Initialization

Funding partner X

Intermediary:Coordinationand contracts

Implementingcompany


Phase 2: Funding

Funding partner 1Funding partner 2Funding partner 3Funding partner 4Funding partner 5Funding partner X

Funding model “cake slices”:Legally there are several contracts which each define some specific requirements: the slices

Intermediary:Coordination

but no contracts

ImplemetationFunding

Initialization

Technically there is one job to do: the cake

There will be one implementing company that makes several contracts

Implementingcompany


Call to action to LibreOffice community

Please support and promote and don't hinder the initiativeProvide feedback on the specification once publishedOffer your programming services once RFP is outStart programming today without pay ;)

Thank you for your support!


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Comments, Questions

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