OOo 3.0 Launch party in Paris
Last Monday, October 13, the Region Île-de-France had invited the OpenOffice.org community at party for the launch of OpenOffice.org 3.0. The reception was great and the 3 speeches really interesting, which I was not expecting at this kind of reception. I appreciated especially the speech of Louis Suarez-Potts, Chair of the Community Council for OpenOffice.org. Here is an excerpt (you can read the whole of it on Louis’ blog – as well in English and in French):
« I refer of course to the spectacle of capitalism’s conflagration we have witnessed this last month—that we continue to witness–and to the lesson that we can take from it: That liberty without fraternity produces fierce catastrophe. And into this catastrophe we have been thrust as actors without a script. Equal, fraternal, collaboration gives us that script.
Building something together, of mutual benefit and interest answers the questions raised by the Crisis: What do we do now, in the spectacle of capitalism’s aftermath? We work together locally, with global consciousness, aware that we exist in a community that is not limited by mountains or oceans but only by the reach of our ambition. »
The Open Source model is indeed one response to the current crisis of the capitalist system. Whatever company bankrupts, Open Source software will continue to exist and to grow. I don’t totally agree with Marc Lipinski when he said (in his speech at the Launch party) that Open Source communities members are totally selfless. Some are of course, but the success of Open Source grows essentially because companies understand that they have an interest, a financial interest, in sharing source code. Let us hope that the encouraging progression of OpenOffice.org, of FireFox, and of a lot of very useful and interesting software will make the EU politicians understand that software patents are nonsense.
To completely change subject, I would like to enlighten the fact that OpenSource software is more and more taking into account the needs of people with disabilities. This is due to the strong involvement of big companies who have to face accessibility because of regulations (like the US section 508). This started with Firefox which became fully accessible since a couple of years (if my memory is ok). OOo 3.0 is now accessible and the accessibility is reported on the accessibility page of OOo Wiki. This is the right way of addressing the issue!