Today I received an email from ABNT confirming the publication of the standard NBR ISO/IEC 26300 (ODF) yesterday, on May 12 - 2008, and I want to publish today on my blog this news.

Today Brazil celebrates the “Abolition of Slavery Day”, a date that marks the day when all slaves were freed in Brazil, on 1888.

The commemoration of today’s date can be expanded, because our nation wake up this morning without being one more slave of a proprietary format, and we now have a National Standard for Editable Office Documents: the ODF.

It’s up to us now to make a choice, and it is quite simple (in practice, a click).

Respect your liberty and the freedom of your neighbour: Use ODF (and remember that “your neighbour” can be yourself , here about 10 years, trying to read a spreadsheet or a text document in which you worked today).

For those who want more information on the NBR of ODF, its page at ABNT can be accessed here.

I can not lose the opportunity and recommend the reading of this story, commenting on the impacts on British students caused by the lack of ODF support for in the office suite from Microsoft (again at the European Commission, which should create an “Special Secretary of Problems with Microsoft ” in a few months, given the volume of work they’re having with that company).

As a child of Portuguese and holder of dual citizenship, I must register my satisfaction in seeing the publication of the Brazilian standard of ODF announced today, of “Our Lady of Fatima”.

I hope she illuminate the path of ODF and forever free us all of slavery.

Greetings from this Luso-Brazilian libertarian