Public services are all about documents. They use documents for everything: to lay down laws and pass on policies, to communicate, print permissions and levy taxes. Sure, the age of paper documents is coming to an end, but it it will be awhile before all paper-based processes are replaced by authenticated web-forms and authorised smartphone apps. (Italy is trying: see our article on a mobile app for eGovernment services.)

So it is inconceivable that public services will ever be able to do without PC office tools to create these documents: texts underpinned with spreadsheets and presentations. This makes it crucial that governments use open technical document specifications. For editable documents, there is only one real option: the Open Document Format (ODF, ISO 26300). ODF is supported by many commonly used office productivity tools. The standard is recognised by all European Member States as well as by the European institutions.

Unfortunately, in practice it is not used much.

The public sector continues to rely on a mix of document formats that are either proprietary or not fully supported. This causes document interoperability problems and increases complexity. It is also a barrier to public administrations that want to use open source office solutions.

In September, the European Commission's Open Source Observatory reported on the renewed push by ODF advocates to promote the uptake of the standard. In recent years, OSOR has reported on active ODF support from the Dutch government, cities and ministries in France, towns in Germany, courts in Switzerland, and health care organisations in the UK.

The other Member States and the European institutions should follow in those footsteps. There are many things that can be done: host the next ODF Plugfest, finance interoperability fixes, contribute to the next version of the standard, support the development of ODF-based open source solutions. But the loudest – and easiest – action they can take is to actually use the standard.