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.              Tomw Communications Pty Ltd - Media Release
                http://www.tomw.net.au/media/20010731.html

              OPEN SOURCE CHALLENGE TO E-DOCUMENT COMPANIES

31 July 2001, Sydney, Australia: An open source project designed to
produce free software to compete with Microsoft may have a wider impact,
according to electronic publishing consultant Tom Worthington. A
Visiting Fellow in the Department of Computer Science at the Australian
National University and Director of Tomw Communications Pty Ltd, Mr.
Worthington presented at the Open Publish 2001 conference, in Sydney
today:

"OpenOffice is an Open Source project with volunteers trying to design
and build free software to rival Microsoft Office. One spinoff of the
project is a portable format for electronic documents, which builds on
public XML standards developed for the web. This might be used to
replace the PDF format in Adobe's widely used Acrobat product."

As another indication of convergence in the electronic publishing fields
Mr Worthington suggested that traditional publishers should now start to
look at targeting interactive TV set-top boxes, as well as the Internet: 

"A few weeks ago Australian free-to-air TV broadcasters agreed to adopt
the european Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) format for interactive TV
(iTV). What few seem to have yet realized it this is based on the same
Internet standards used for web pages. As well as a type of "super
teletext" system for TV, this can also be used for multimedia documents
on set top boxes. This can provide a new market for electronic
publications. With some minor adjustments to regulatory settings, this
may rescue the Federal Government from its datacasting policy debacle."

In 1999 Worthington was elected a Fellow of the Australian Computer
Society for his contribution to the development of public Internet
policy. At the Australian National University he is presenting courses
on wireless Internet and web site design using the latest international
standards. In May he presented a seminar on e-Commerce for Small
Business, sponsored by the Federal Government's Business Entry Point.

Media Enquires: 

Tom Worthington FACS, Email: tom.worthington@tomw.net.au Tel: 0419 496
150 International: +61 419 496 150 

More details: This media release with links to referenced material is
available on-line at: http://www.tomw.net.au/media/20010731.html

  TomW Communications Pty Ltd, PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia
E-mail: tomw.communications@tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150 A.C.N. 088 714
309