Portugal's Agency for Administrative Modernisation (AMA) is asking citizens to comment on several open standards, including document formats PDF, ODF, interoperability standards, standards for geographic information systems and standards for electronic invoicing. Comments are welcome until the end of this month.
The consultation is part of the country's law on open standards, adopted in April. This law requires a list and some rules on open standards and AMA is using the consultation to get citizen’s comments. It will result in a regulation on National Digital Interoperability.
Portugal's association of open source service providers (Associação de Empresas de Software Open Source, ESOP) is worried about 'secret lobbying (that will) override technical expertise' it said earlier this month in a statement. ESOP calls on the government to be transparent about the process, and to make sure all remarks and observations are public, when taken into account.
ESOP awarded AMA at a conference in September for its 'actions taken on the subject of interoperability'. It also praised the parliamentary committee that drafted the open standards law.
Paul Meller, spokesperson for Open Forum Europe, an advocacy organisation promoting the use of open standards, writes it "one of the most enlightened laws of its kind in Europe", in a recent article at Public Service Europe.
Meller: "Without the Open Standards Law, Portugal runs the risk of remaining locked into the proprietary computer systems of a few large contractors. During these times of austerity - it is, therefore, urgent that the country's Council of Ministers approve the regulation and the list of open standards without delay - once the public consultation closes."
More information:
Public consultation on open standards (in Portuguese)
Decree-Law No. 36/2011 (pdf, in Portuguese)
OFE's Public Service news item
Tek news item (in Portuguese)
Press statement by the Associação de Empresas de Software Open Source Portuguesas (in Portuguese)