Dr. Matthias Stürmer organized a workshop to improve OOXML integration in LibreOffice. Participants included public institutions and developers. They identified issues like layout differences and prioritized use cases to address, like formatting of frames and tables in DOCX. The initiative aims to solve the collective action problem by coordinating funding and implementation. The next steps are to publish requirements, seek an implementing partner, and integrate improvements upstream into LibreOffice. The goal is to better support OOXML to increase LibreOffice adoption.

1. User initiative for improving OOXML
integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org
Dr. Matthias Stürmer, Ernst & Young Switzerland
October 14th 2011, LibreOffice Conference, Paris

2. 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
Dr. Matthias Stürmer source technologies.
Senior Advisor
Ernst & Young AG Since 2010 he is Senior Advisor at Ernst & Young in Bern
Belpstrasse 23 specializing on open source, open government data, and
3001 Bern social media.
Switzerland
Matthias Stürmer is member of the board of Swiss Open
matthias.stuermer@ch.ey.com
Work: +41 58 286 61 97 System User Group /ch/open, secretary of the Swiss
Mobile: +41 58 289 61 97 Parliamentarian Group for Digital Sustainability, and
project leader of www.opensource.ch and other open
source initiatives.
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User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

3. Agenda
1. Why promoting a proprietary format?
2. Workshop schedule and participants
3. Summary of the workshop
4. Results and next steps
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User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

4. Why promoting a proprietary format?
To increase adoption of LibreOffice!
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User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

5. 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.
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User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

6. Major technical issues
Opening OOXML formats is possible with current versions of
LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org
Unknown if visualization is conform to Microsoft Office 20XX
Most 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 .xslx
Change tracking within .docx files
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User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

7. 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.
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User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

8. How to solve the collective action problem
Phase 1: Initialization
a) Mobilize attention and interest of several open source software users
b) Create clear and common understanding of the issues, ask the experts
c) Aggregate and specify the requirements, prioritize and cluster them
Phase 2: Funding
a) Organize coordination for Request for Proposals (RFP)
b) Send out specification to potential implementers
c) Do fundraising for the best proposal
Phase 3: Implementation
a) Organize project management, sign contracts, start implementing
b) Do testing among the open source software users, finalize development
c) Publish resulting source code, pass it upstream to the open source project
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User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

9. 2. Workshop schedule and participants
Who is who
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User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

10. 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)
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User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

11. Participating organizations
Public Institutions
City of Freiburg i.B.
City of München
City of Jena
Swiss Federal Court
Federal Strategy Unit for IT (ISB)
Another Swiss federal agency
Canton of Vaud
Community organizations
Association Swiss Open Systems User Group /ch/open
Association Freies Office Deutschland e.V.
(former association OpenOffice.org Deutschland e.V.)
Open Source Business Alliance OSBA (merger of Linux-Verband and Lisog)
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User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

12. Workshop participants
Public administration: LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org/OOXML:
Rüdiger Czieschla, City of Freiburg Thorsten Behrens, Novell
Andreas Kawohl, City of Freiburg Florian Reuter, self-employed developer
Andor Ertsey, City of München Svante Schubert, self-employed developer
Dr. Jutta Kreyss, City of München Thomas Uhl, Open Source Business Alliance
Dr. Martin Reinhardt, City of Jena Dr. Frank Siebert, Freies Office Deutschland e.V.
Dr. Harro Rosner, City of Jena Lothar K. Becker, Freies Office Deutschland e.V.
Marc von Weissenfluh, Swiss Federal Court Mario Wendt, Microsoft
Daniel Brunner, Swiss Federal Court Stefan Stüring, KO GmbH
Tobias Hintze, KO GmbH
Jos van den Oever, KO GmbH
Ernst & Young:
Dr. Matthias Stürmer, workshop leader
Mario Aeby, assistent
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User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

13. 3. Summary of the workshop
Method on how to bring public administrators and
open source developers to collaborate
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User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

14. Challenges
Stakeholders
Users: public institutions
Developers: LibreOffice and OOXML filter programmers
Challenges
Huge knowledge gap: terminology, standard specification,
structures and processes within public administrations etc.
Different perspectives: input oriented vs. output oriented
Different interests: perfect implementation vs. solving problem
How to bring them and collaborate together?
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User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

15. Example: technical insight for users (like myself ;)
Important difference between
a) error in OOXML filter
b) missing OOXML feature within LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org
What does that mean?
a) Little effort to correct OOXML filter
b) 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
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User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

16. Structure of a use case
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User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

17. Positioning of the identified use cases
1000 days
possible
show strategic
100 days stoppers features
Estimated effort
→ defined by developers
10 days low special
hanging wishes
fruits
1 day
today ½ year 1 year 3 years
Priority regarding implementation → defined by users (public institutions)
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User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

18. 18
User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

19. 4. Results and next steps
“Correct presentation of OOXML documents in open
source office applications”
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User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

20. 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 .docx
2. Formatting of tables within .docx
3. Formatting of lists and numbers within .docx
4. Formatting of comments within .docx and .xlsx
5. Font embedding for both OOXML and ODF
Every use case is specified by test documents
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User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

21. Current status of the user initiative
Phase 1: Initialization
a) Mobilize attention and interest of several open source software users
b) Create clear and common understanding of the issues, ask the experts
c) Aggregate and specify the requirements, prioritize and cluster them
Phase 2: Funding
a) Organize coordination for Request for Proposals (RFP)
b) Send out specification to potential implementers
c) Do fundraising for the best proposal
Phase 3: Implementation
a) Organize project management, sign contracts with implementers
b) Do testing among the open source software users, finalize development
c) Publish resulting source code, pass it upstream to the open source project
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User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

22. Initialization
Phase 2: Funding Funding
Implemetation
Funding model “intermediary”:
Problem: Public procurement
regulations requires clear results
Funding partner 1
for spoken money
Funding partner 2
Intermediary: Implementing
Funding partner 3 Coordination company
and contracts
Funding partner 4
Funding partner 5 Funding partner X
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User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

23. Initialization
Phase 2: Funding Funding
Implemetation
Funding model “cake slices”:
Technically there is one Legally there are several contracts
job to do: the cake which each define some specific
requirements: the slices
Funding partner 1
Funding partner 2
Funding partner 3 Intermediary:
Coordination Implementing
Funding partner 4 but no contracts company
Funding partner 5
Funding partner X
There will be one
implementing company
that makes several
contracts
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User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

24. Call to action to LibreOffice community
Please support and promote and don't hinder the initiative
Provide feedback on the specification once published
Offer your programming services once RFP is out
Start programming today without pay ;)
Thank you
for your
support!
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User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org

25. Comments, Questions
Dr. Matthias Stürmer
matthias.stuermer@ch.ey.com
+41 58 286 61 97
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User initiative for improving OOXML integration in LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org