this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2026
60 points (98.4% liked)

Technology

42208 readers
306 users here now

This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.

Ask in DM before posting product reviews or ads. All such posts otherwise are subject to removal.

Rules:

1: All Lemmy rules apply

2: Do not post low effort posts

3: NEVER post naziped*gore stuff

4: Always post article URLs or their archived version URLs as sources, NOT screenshots. Help the blind users.

5: personal rants of Big Tech CEOs like Elon Musk are unwelcome (does not include posts about their companies affecting wide range of people)

6: no advertisement posts unless verified as legitimate and non-exploitative/non-consumerist

7: crypto related posts, unless essential, are disallowed

founded 7 years ago
MODERATORS
MinutePhrase@lemmy.ml
60
Germany has shown the way forward by making OpenDocument Format (ODF) mandatory as the standard format for office documents (blog.documentfoundation.org)
submitted 17 hours ago by JRepin@lemmy.ml to c/technology@lemmy.ml
3 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/44907370

Germany has made ODF mandatory as the standard format for documents within its sovereign digital infrastructure. The decision is incorporated into the Deutschland-Stack, the framework governing the development, procurement and management of digital systems for public administration at all levels. This is neither a pilot project nor a recommendation from a working group, but a mandate backed by the federal government and the coalition agreement.

The official document has been published by the IT-Planungsrat, the central political steering body comprising the federal government and state governments, which promotes and develops common, user-oriented IT solutions for efficient and secure digital administration in Germany: https://www.it-planungsrat.de/beschluss/b-2026-03-it.

At this point, the question for all other European governments is clear: what are you waiting for? With this decision, the distinction between those who care about digital sovereignty and those who do not becomes stark.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.ml 3 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I saw "Germany" in the title and instantly assumed it was a pilot program at a local government level because I thought I'd read somewhere that in Germany, the regional governments do most of the heavy lifting in terms of legislation, with a very limited federal government, but according to the article, I was wrong:

Germany has made ODF mandatory as the standard format for documents within its sovereign digital infrastructure. The decision is incorporated into the Deutschland-Stack, the framework governing the development, procurement and management of digital systems for public administration at all levels. This is neither a pilot project nor a recommendation from a working group, but a mandate backed by the federal government and the coalition agreement.

The official document has been published by the IT-Planungsrat, the central political steering body comprising the federal government and state governments, which promotes and develops common, user-oriented IT solutions for efficient and secure digital administration in Germany: https://www.it-planungsrat.de/beschluss/b-2026-03-it.

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 16 hours ago

I thought I’d read somewhere that in Germany, the regional governments do most of the heavy lifting in terms of legislation, with a very limited federal government

The federal government in Germany certainly has more legislative power (in comparison to state governments) than that of the US.

The thing about Germany is that in Germany, there are many areas where federal laws are enforced by state executive branches, which isn't really a thing in the US.