Digital sovereignty is of vital importance for data freedom. If governments and organisations use proprietary or pseudo-standard formats, they limit the tools that citizens can use to access data. So we’re happy to see that the IT Planning Council in Germany is committing to move to the Open Document Format – a fully standardised format […]
I wondered about that too. Your figure of 169.4 Mio EUR certainly is a good sign. Also, there’s this phrasing in the linked report:
Der IT-Planungsrat setzt sich dafür ein, dass in der Öffentlichen Verwaltung offene Formate wie das Open Document Format (ODF) zunehmend Verwendung findet und bis 2027 zum Standard für den Dokumentenaustausch wird. Er beauftragt das Standardisierungsboard mit der Umsetzung.
Which can be translated as follows:
"The IT Planning council promotes the goal that open formats like the Open Document Format (ODF) are increasingly used in the Public Administration and become the standard for document exchange by 2027. It directs the Board of Standardizations to implement this.
That’s making me hopeful.
Also, note that the decision is from 26.03.2025, so maybe something more on it can already be found by now…
That concern is somewhat justified for sure, but what’s good is that the authority of this IT Planning Council also stems from the Länder (states), so that there will be (a) at least some continuity and (b) it might even be the case that some politicians of his party are actually behind this.
I wondered about that too. Your figure of 169.4 Mio EUR certainly is a good sign. Also, there’s this phrasing in the linked report:
Which can be translated as follows:
That’s making me hopeful.
Also, note that the decision is from 26.03.2025, so maybe something more on it can already be found by now…
My guess is that nobody really knows what will happen with this once the Merz administration takes over.
That concern is somewhat justified for sure, but what’s good is that the authority of this IT Planning Council also stems from the Länder (states), so that there will be (a) at least some continuity and (b) it might even be the case that some politicians of his party are actually behind this.