mfioretti.com

The OpenDocument Format (ODF) Plugfest gathers together the most important international experts in terms of digital office documents interoperability. At the March 2010 edition in Granada I gave a talk about the proprietary traps that can be hidden inside ODF documents, preventing interoperability. I also reported in detail what happened at the Plugfest in two separate articles:

• Notes from ODF Plugfest in Granada, Day One
• Final Notes from the ODF Plugfest in Granada

This is the talk given at the Kosova Software Freedom Conference 2009 about "E-government, digital rights, equal opportunities: how can Free Software help developing countries?". Only the PDF version is available here, due to web server space constraint. If you need the original, editable OpenDocument version just request it by email to marco . at . digifreedom dot net

The Software Freedom Conference Kosova is to be a yearly event to bring together local developers and the international community. In the 2009 edition I gave a talk about how Free SW can help developing countries.

Interviews and other coverage of the conference is available at:

1. the interviews page on the official website
2. F. Marzano's report

Description of the actions taken by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of India to become, using Free Software as an essential tool, one of the most high-tech political parties in India by 2010.

Here is the full slideshow of my talk at the Meeting in Feltre about the Veneto regional law on pluralism in ICT. The original OpenDocument version is not available on this server only becase it is much bigger than the PDF one, but it is available on request writing at marco, at, digifreedom.net.

Why the .docx and OpenXML file formats from Microsoft should never be used to generate and distribute new files. On the same argument:

• How file formats can be used to favour (or hamper) innovation (seminar held in 2005 and 2009 at the Laboratory of Economics and Management of the S. Anna School of Superior Studies)
• Everybody's Guide to OpenDocument

A NON technical explanation, conceived to be printed out and distributed to any audience, regardless of their computer skills, of why everybody should use and demand public adoption of OpenDocument. Other relevant resources of the same type are "Just say no to OpenXML" and my seminar on how file formats favor or hamper innovatio.

An edited summary of two email conversations which took place among a few subscribers of the p2p-research mailing list during spring of 2008 about the applicability of P2P development models to physical objects and infrastructures.

An article (PDF format) explaining that microelectronic products cannot be produced locally (at least in the foreseable future) but that, even for supporters of degrowth, it wouldn't make sense to give up computers for such a reason: the right thing to do is use them responsibly, to avoid waste, using, among other things, open file formats and Free as in Freedom software. In 2008 I also wrote on the same topic, some Thoughts on P2P production and deployment of physical objects

My Seminar on "OpenDocument, OpenXML and the others: how file formats can be used to favor (or hamper) innovation, active citizenship and really free markets" at the Laboratory of Economics and Management of the S. Anna School of Advanced Studies.

Here is some feedback and comments about this seminar:

"Historically a culture has been little more than nothing without its documents. The end of a civilization has been based usually in the destruction of its written knowledge. The speech of Mr. Fioretti shows how important for a culture is to warranty along the centuries the open interoperability of their documents and so the accurate preservation and transmission of the knowledge and customs of such civilization." - Alberto Barrionuevo, Socio Director of OPENTIA and former director of FFII

Comments from several mailing lists:

• As usually, it is excellent. Congrats, Marco - A. Barrionuevo
• Thanks! This is a most excellent set of slides - L. Noodén
• Excellent examples and lots of background information - J. de Jong