Shifting the Focus: OpenOffice.org 3.0

Today, seven years after Sun released to the free and open source community the code to StarOffice 5.2 we can measure the success of the project and product in curves and numbers whose slope and magnitude dwarf the wildest expectations of even the most ebullient dotcom speculators. Where then do we go from here? This presentation examines some of the technology that OpenOffice.org 3.0 will bring and hints at what can be rightly called the shift in perspective and focus that the new technology offers. For if the first seven years have built on the need of users everywhere for a desktop productivity application that is free, the next seven will have to address the changing nature of the desktop and how we actually do work.

Louis Suarez-Potts, Community Manager and Chair of the Community Council for OpenOffice.org, OpenOffice Louis Suárez-Potts is the longtime Community Manager and Chair of the Community Council for OpenOffice.org; he joined Sun Microsystems in 2007 and has led the OpenOffice.org community since 2000. The lead or co-lead of several projects and the primary spokesperson and representative of OpenOffice.org, Suárez-Potts also represents the project regarding OpenDocument format (ODF) matters, and is on the OASIS ODF Adoption Technical Committee and is a member of the ODF Alliance. He speaks frequently on the ODF, OpenOffice.org, education and open source, and community development throughout the world. Suárez-Potts is currently working on several articles regarding open source development and education. He lives in Toronto and received his PhD from U.C. Berkeley.