[Nettime-bold] Tomw: OPEN SOURCE CHALLENGE TO E-DOCUMENT COMPANIES

["geert lovink" <geert@xs4all.nl>]

(fwd. to nettime with permission /geert)

From: "Tom Worthington" <tom.worthington@tomw.net.au>

OPEN SOURCE CHALLENGE TO E-DOCUMENT COMPANIES

31 July 2001, Sydney, Australia: An open source project designed to produce
free software to compete with Microsoft may have a wider impact, according
to electronic publishing consultant Tom Worthington. A Visiting Fellow in
the Department of Computer Science at the Australian National University
and Director of Tomw Communications Pty Ltd, Mr. Worthington presented at
the Open Publish 2001 conference, in Sydney today:

"OpenOffice is an Open Source project with volunteers trying to design and
build free software to rival Microsoft Office. One spinoff of the project
is a portable format for electronic documents, which builds on public XML
standards developed for the web. This might be used to replace the PDF
format in Adobe's widely used Acrobat product."

As another indication of convergence in the electronic publishing fields Mr
Worthington suggested that traditional publishers should now start to look
at targeting interactive TV set-top boxes, as well as the Internet:

"A few weeks ago Australian free-to-air TV broadcasters agreed to adopt the
european Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) format for interactive TV (iTV).
What few seem to have yet realized it this is based on the same Internet
standards used for web pages. As well as a type of "super teletext" system
for TV, this can also be used for multimedia documents on set top boxes.
This can provide a new market for electronic publications. With some minor
adjustments to regulatory settings, this may rescue the Federal Government
from its datacasting policy debacle."

In 1999 Worthington was elected a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society
for his contribution to the development of public Internet policy. At the
Australian National University he is presenting courses on wireless
Internet and web site design using the latest international standards. In
May he presented a seminar on e-Commerce for Small Business, sponsored by
the Federal Government's Business Entry Point.

Media Enquires:

Tom Worthington FACS, Email: tom.worthington@tomw.net.au Tel: 0419 496 150
International: +61 419 496 150

More details: This media release with links to referenced material is
available on-line at: http://www.tomw.net.au/media/20010731.html

   TomW Communications Pty Ltd, PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia
E-mail: tomw.communications@tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150 A.C.N. 088 714 309




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