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Following these guidelines whenever possible will improve the interoperability across openIMIS contributors and partner projects, including other GIZ projects. The goal for these guidelines is to provide a pragmatic approach in order to create an impact across the openIMIS open systems. Fully switching to open source is not likely or practical for many organisations and this guide provides best practises.
In a world where paper documents increasingly get replaced by electronic records, long term access to the data becomes critical. This is especially the case for legal contracts and government documents that stay valid and relevant over decades, or even longer. GIZ is also facing this challenge.
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These guides are to be used as recommendations and inspiration as opposed to rules of thumb. If you have questions or are not sure about something, the best thing to do is file an issue on our Jira Service Desk to start a conversation with other openIMIS contributors. |
Open Formats
In a world where paper documents increasingly get replaced by electronic records, long term access to the data becomes critical. This is especially the case for legal contracts and government documents that stay valid and relevant over decades, or even longer. GIZ is also facing this challenge. Just as paper and pens have been available from multiple manufacturers and vendors , document file formats and the applications creating these file formats need to be supported by and available from multiple vendors. This guarantees long-term access to data, even if companies disappear, change their strategies or dramatically change their prices. The formats in which information is published can either be “open” or “closed”. Open format means the software and format are available to anyone, free of charge, and available for people to build into their own software and products without limitation set by intellectual property rights. Developers can use these to produce multiple software packages, services, and products by using these formats.
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