The Document Foundation Explained

The Document Foundation
Founders:Existing members of the OpenOffice.org community
Founded Date:28 September 2010 (announced)
17 February 2012 (legally established)
Type:Community
Location:Berlin, Germany
Key People:Thorsten Behrens, Eliane Domingos de Sousa, Adam Fyne, Joel Madero, Michael Meeks, Björn Michaelsen, Fridrich Štrba, Andreas Mantke, Eike Rathke, Norbert Thiebaud, Florian Effenberger
Focus:Office software
Products:LibreOffice, Document Liberation Project
Staff:6

The Document Foundation (TDF) is a non-profit organization that promotes open-source document handling software. It was created by members of the OpenOffice.org community to manage and develop LibreOffice, a free and open-source office suite, and is legally registered in Germany as a Stiftung.[1] Its goal is to produce a vendor-independent office suite with ODF support in a development environment free from company control.[2]

The Document Foundation was created partially over fears that Oracle Corporation, after acquiring Sun Microsystems, would discontinue developing OpenOffice.org as it had done with OpenSolaris.[3] [4] [5]

Organization

The Document Foundation has multiple bodies[6] running its operations:

In addition an informal advisory board exists to connect with other organizations and entities.

Board of directors and team

The seventh elected Board of Directors has seven members and three deputies.[7] As of May 2024, the Board of Directors composition is:[8]

The Document Foundation employs Florian Effenberger as executive director,[9] who oversees a team of 10 people.[10]

Advisory board

In June 2011 the foundation announced that it had formed an advisory board. The initial members included Google, SUSE, Red Hat, the German registered society Freies Office Deutschland e.V., Software in the Public Interest, and the Free Software Foundation.[11] In February 2012, Intel became a member of the advisory board.[12] In November 2012, Lanedo joined the advisory board.[13] In June 2013, the French Inter-Ministry Mutualisation for an Open Productivity Suite (MIMO)—the government working group responsible for 500,000 desktops—and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) of Saudi Arabia joined the advisory board.[14] [15] In July 2013, TDF announced that AMD joined the advisory board.[16] Swiss FOSS company Adfinis joined the advisory board in May 2019.[17] In July 2019, the UK Government Digital Service joined.[18]

History

Creation

The Document Foundation was announced on 28 September 2010 with the Foundation being governed by a "Steering Committee" during the phase of initial creation. The announcement received support from companies including Novell,[19] Red Hat, Canonical and Google.[20] In December 2010, The Document Foundation announced that the BrOffice Centre of Excellence for Free Software, the organization behind BrOffice joined the Foundation.[21]

The Foundation also made available a re-branded fork of OpenOffice.org which was based on the upcoming 3.3 version, with patches and build software from the Go-oo fork. It was hoped that the LibreOffice name would be provisional as Oracle was invited to become a member of The Document Foundation, and was asked to donate the OpenOffice.org brand to the project.[2] Following the announcement, Oracle asked members of the OpenOffice.org Community Council who were members of The Document Foundation to step down from the council, claiming that this represented a conflict of interest,[22] leaving the community council composed 100% of Oracle employees.[23]

Jacqueline Rahemipour, Co-Lead of the OpenOffice.org Board, stated:

When the project was announced, The Document Foundation did not exist as a legal entity. The Steering Committee wished to formally set up a foundation, and following research chose to establish the foundation in Germany.[24] On 16 February 2011, a fundraising drive was announced to raise the €50,000 needed to create a German foundation.[25] The required amount was raised in eight days.[26]

After clearing legal requirements, the foundation was finally incorporated on 17 February 2012.[27]

Reaction

In assessing Oracle's role in the events surrounding the establishment of The Document Foundation, writer Ryan Cartwright in late October 2010 said:

In October 2010 Linux Magazines Bruce Byfield suggested that the formation of The Document Foundation is just the Go-oo project reinventing itself to the long-term detriment of users.[28]

In April 2011, Oracle announced its intention to move OpenOffice.org to a "purely community-based project".[29] [30] Oracle also terminated its commercial product, called Oracle Open Office. In the view of some these moves were a reaction to the formation of The Document Foundation, but according to former Sun executive Simon Phipps:

As of 2 June 2011 Oracle has relicensed OpenOffice.org under the Apache License 2.0 and transferred ownership of the project's assets and trademarks to the Apache Software Foundation.[31]

Adding the Document Liberation Project

On 2 April 2014, The Document Foundation announced a second top-level project, the Document Liberation Project.[32] It defines itself as "a home for the growing community of developers united to free users from vendor lock-in of content".

Notes and References

  1. Web site: The Document Foundation officially incorporated in Berlin, Germany « The Document Foundation Blog . 20 February 2012 . Blog.documentfoundation.org . 18 October 2012.
  2. Web site: OpenOffice.org Community announces The Document Foundation . 28 September 2010 . The Document Foundation . 28 September 2010 . documentfoundation.org . https://web.archive.org/web/20100930085933/http://www.documentfoundation.org/contact/tdf_release.html . 30 September 2010.
  3. Web site: Collins. Barry. OpenOffice group breaks away from Oracle. PC Pro. 29 September 2010.
  4. Web site: Clarke. Gavin. OpenOffice files Oracle divorce papers. The Register. 29 September 2010.
  5. Web site: Paul. Ryan . Document Foundation forks OpenOffice.org, liberates it from Oracle. ars technica. 29 September 2010.
  6. Web site: Effenberger. Florian. The Document Foundation – The open, transparent and meritocratic future of free office software. Florian Effenberger. 2014-01-29.
  7. Web site: The Document Foundation Statutes. The Document Foundation. 27 February 2012.
  8. Web site: Board of Directors. The Document Foundation. 5 May 2024.
  9. Web site: TDF BoD Meeting Minutes. The Document Foundation. 14 June 2013.
  10. Web site: Saunders . Mike . Meet the TDF team . 25 September 2020 .
  11. News: LibreOffice gets serious with new release and Advisory Board. https://web.archive.org/web/20110622050139/http://www.internetnews.com/skerner/2011/06/libreoffice-gets-serious-with.html. 22 June 2011. 28 February 2012. Kerner. Sean Michael. 14 June 2011. Internetnews.com.
  12. Web site: The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice for Windows from SUSE is now available in Intel AppUp(SM) Center. 23 February 2012. The Documentation Foundation. 28 February 2012. Italo. Vignoli.
  13. News: TDF/Advisory Board. 4 August 2013. 3 July 2013.
  14. The Document Foundation welcomes France's MIMO in the Advisory Board .
  15. The Document Foundation welcomes a new member of the Advisory Board: King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) of Saudi Arabia. 26 June 2013. 25 June 2013. The Document Foundation. .
  16. News: AMD joins The Document Foundation Advisory Board to accelerate LibreOffice . 4 August 2013. 3 July 2013.
  17. News: The Document Foundation welcomes Adfinis SyGroup to the project's Advisory Board . 25 May 2019. 23 May 2019.
  18. News: UK Government Digital Service joins The Document Foundation Advisory Board . 28 May 2021. 24 July 2019.
  19. News: Viva la LibreOffice! . Kerry Adorno . Novell News . Novell . 28 September 2010 . 1 February 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110415090729/http://www.novell.com/prblogs/?p=3095 . 15 April 2011 .
  20. News: Update: OpenOffice.org developers move to break ties with Oracle . Jeremy Kirk . Computerworld . Computerworld Inc . 28 September 2010 . 1 February 2011.
  21. Web site: 29 May 2012. 6 December 2010. The Document Foundation. Blog. LibreOffice development extends to Brazil. Florian. Effenberger.
  22. Web site: Oracle wants LibreOffice members to leave OOo council . 18 October 2010 . Ryan Paul . ars technica . 20 October 2010.
  23. Web site: Blankenhorn . Dana . Oracle purging OpenOffice.org community council . https://web.archive.org/web/20130317180130/http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/oracle-purging-openoffice-org-community-council/7575 . dead . 17 March 2013 . ZDNet . 19 October 2010 . 2012-12-30.
  24. http://challenge.documentfoundation.org/ LibreOffice 50,000 Euro Challenge
  25. http://blog.documentfoundation.org/2011/02/16/libreoffice-community-starts-50000-euro-challenge-for-setting-up-its-foundation/ LibreOffice Community starts 50,000 Euro challenge for setting-up its foundation
  26. http://blog.documentfoundation.org/2011/02/25/thousands-of-donors-contribute-e50000-in-just-eight-days-to-the-document-foundation/ Thousands of donors contribute €50,000 in just eight days to The Document Foundation
  27. Web site: The Document Foundation officially incorporated in Berlin, Germany . The Document Foundation . The Document Foundation Blog . 20 February 2012 . 20 February 2012.
  28. Bruce Byfield . 22 October 2010 . The Cold War Between OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice . . Linux New Media . 1 February 2011 .
  29. News: Oracle gives up on OpenOffice after community forks the project. 19 April 2011. Paul. Ryan. April 2011. Ars Technica.
  30. Web site: Oracle Announces Its Intention to Move OpenOffice.org to a Community-Based Project . 19 April 2011 . Deborah Hellinger . 15 April 2011 . Oracle . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110422195513/http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Oracle-Announces-Its-Intention-to-Move-OpenOfficeorg-to-a-Community-Based-Project-NASDAQ-ORCL-1428324.htm . 22 April 2011 .
  31. News: OpenOffice proposed as Apache project. https://web.archive.org/web/20110603074801/http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/OpenOffice-proposed-as-Apache-project-1254201.html. 3 June 2011. 1 June 2011. Heise Media UK Ltd. June 2011. The Open H.
  32. News: Document Liberation Project aims to break vendor lock-in. 19 May 2014.

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