First TDF Advisory Board members demonstrate wide corporate support for LibreOffice

floeff · June 15, 2011, 8:58am

Strong backing for a truly free and vendor-neutral office suite
The Document Foundation provides solid grounds to build upon

The Document Foundation today announced the first members of its Advisory Board: Google, SUSE, Red Hat, Freies Office Deutschland e.V., Software in the Public Interest, and the Free Software Foundation. The new appointees will serve for an initial term of one year.

The body represents The Document Foundation's sponsors, with each sponsor having the right to one representative. They will provide the future Board of Directors with advice, guidance and proposals, and will consult regularly on the further development of the Foundation and its associated projects.

"We're very proud, and warmly welcome the first members of the Advisory Board. Its composition shows that LibreOffice is a vendor-neutral, truly-free office suite, and confirms that The Document Foundation has created a solid base to build upon, for the community, for corporations and enterprises, and for adopters and end-users," said Florian Effenberger on behalf of The Document Foundation's Steering Committee. "With LibreOffice being downloaded from all over the world, with the community growing quickly, and with organizations and corporations showing strong support, The Document Foundation has succeeded in creating a safe, stable and secure base to ensure the future of free office suites," he added.

Thomas Krumbein, Chairman of the German non-profit organization Freies Office Deutschland e.V., commented, "Freies Office Deutschland e.V. has been in existence since 2004. We have been closely cooperating with end-users, organizations and businesses in Germany and, over the last two years, have organized a dedicated congress for business and administration. The founding of The Document Foundation has been very well received, especially by those looking for safety and stability. We are honored to serve on the Advisory Board and to help shape what we believe is the ideal home for a truly-free office suite."

Holger Dyroff, Vice President Business Development for SUSE, stated, "SUSE recognises the value of community governance and is very pleased to help fund as well as provide advice to The Document Foundation. I look forward to representing SUSE on the inaugural Advisory Board. This will assure that our customers and users views and priorities are represented to the leadership of The Document Foundation."

"The Document Foundation shares the objectives of openness, transparency, interoperability and user choice that are reflected in Red Hat's core values," said Brian Stevens, CTO and vice president, Worldwide Engineering, Red Hat. "We are pleased to participate on the Advisory Board and to highlight the importance of continued community contributions and potential benefits from the availability of a free office suite."

Jeremy Allison, co-founder of Samba and member of Google's Open Source Programs Office, added, "The creation of The Document Foundation's Advisory board is a great step forward for the organization. Google is pleased to be a supporter of The Document Foundation, and to provide funding and advice to advance their work."

Bdale Garbee, President of Software in the Public Interest added, "Software in the Public Interest is pleased to have The Document Foundation's LibreOffice as an associated project. TDF and LibreOffice match well with our mission, and we are pleased to be able to provide funding services and contribute advice for TDF's future."

John Sullivan, Executive Director of the Free Software Foundation, concluded, "The Free Software Foundation is pleased to offer its advise to The Document Foundation. We applaud TDF's demonstrated commitment to user freedom, and will do our best to help it achieve its free software goals going forward."

Press and Media Contacts

Florian Effenberger (based near Munich, Germany, UTC+1)
Phone: +49 8341 99660880
Mobile: +49 151 14424108
E-mail: floeff@documentfoundation.org
Skype: floeff

Olivier Hallot (based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, UTC-3)
Mobile: +55 21 88228812
E-mail: olivier.hallot@documentfoundation.org

Charles H. Schulz (based in Paris, France, UTC+1)
Mobile: +33 6 98655424
E-mail: charles.schulz@documentfoundation.org

Italo Vignoli (based in Milan, Italy, UTC+1)
Phone: +39 02 320621813
Mobile: +39 348 5653829
E-mail: italo.vignoli@documentfoundation.org
Skype: italovignoli
Google Talk: italo.vignoli@gmail.com