LibreOffice Conference 2026 in Pordenone, Italy, and LibreOffice Conference 2027 in Gothenburg, Sweden

LibreOffice Conference 2026 will be organised by PNlug (Pordenone Linux User Group) and the University of Pordenone in the city of Pordenone, on the university campus.

The conference will begin on Thursday, 10 September and will end on the morning of Saturday, 12 September with the usual closing session.

In the days leading up to the conference, there will be a series of internal meetings and the usual community meeting on the afternoon of Wednesday 9 September.

Of course, all the details of the conference, the call for papers, and the final programme with all the side events will be announced during 2026 on this blog and on the conference website.

LibreOffice Conference 2027 will be organised in Gothenburg, Sweden, by the local community led by Leif-Jöran Olsson, who will be involved in the organisation of the 2026 conference to familiarise himself with the process.

Again, all details will be announced on this blog and on the conference website starting in the last quarter of 2026.

The Document Foundation is the small non-profit entity behind LibreOffice. It oversees the project and community, and is now expanding with new developer roles. So let’s say hello to Dan Williams, who joins the team to work on design and user interface (UI) improvements, with an initial focus on macOS:

Tell us a bit about yourself!

I’m from the USA, have lived on both US coasts at various times, and now live back in the “midwest” where I grew up.

I was previously a software engineer, team lead, and manager at Red Hat for more than 20 years. In that time I’ve worked on a large variety of projects, from local networking to cloud networking to desktop software. I spent two years helping build the One Laptop Per Child software stack which was an eye-opening experience from a UI and design perspective. I believe passionately in free and open-source software; all the code I’ve written so far in my career is open-source.

Oddly enough, I’m not new to the LibreOffice community; I was an OpenOffice contributor and co-founded the NeoOffice port to Mac OS X (now called macOS). That led to being hired by Red Hat to package and improve OpenOffice for Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, where I helped start the 64-bit port and realize the Native Widget Framework that’s still used in LibreOffice today. I eventually handed my Red Hat OpenOffice duties over to Caolán McNamara (now at Collabora) and moved on to networking. I still recognize quite a few of our community members who I worked with before!

Outside of office software I’m the maintainer of the ModemManager WWAN software stack and I seem to have developed a hobby of collecting LTE and 5G base stations. I enjoy playing with hardware (especially if it runs Linux), baking and cooking, building large structures out of wood, and occasionally brewing beer in my basement.

What’s your new role at TDF, and what will you be working on?

A significant part of my new role will echo my early OpenOffice contributions: Mac! I’ll convert the last bits of Carbon API into modern Cocoa ones. This old code involves some pretty core functionality like popup menus and key modifier detection so it’s going to be tricky but we need to do it. Nobody knows how much longer Apple’s going to support HIToolbox but I’d like to be prepared. I’m also going to improve general Mac usability and experience; I’ve been using LibreOffice on macOS since the beginning so I’m familiar with its rough edges.

But the Mac isn’t the only platform so I’ll be driving user interface improvements and fixing annoying bugs everywhere else too, regardless of platform or visual backend. I also look forward to working with the LibreOffice Design community to try out new ideas and see what sticks.

I enjoy the challenge of working throughout the entire codebase, from …

This new version of the native LibreOffice document format standard marks the 20th anniversary of the only open document format for office applications

Berlin, December 3, 2025 – The Document Foundation announces that OASIS Open (www.oasis-open.org), the global open-source and standards organisation, has approved the Open Document Format (ODF) for office applications v1.4 as an OASIS standard, which is the organisation’s highest level of ratification.

The release of ODF v1.4 coincides with the 20th anniversary of ODF’s adoption as an OASIS Standard. Since 2005, ODF has served users as a vendor-neutral, royalty-free format for office documents, ensuring that files remain readable, editable and interoperable across platforms.

Several governments and international organisations, including NATO, the European Commission and countries across multiple continents, have mandated ODF for their operations worldwide.

ODF v1.4 maintains full backward compatibility and improves developer documentation, adds better support for assistive technologies for accessibility, improves professional document formatting and visual design capabilities, and expands features for data analysis and technical documentation. These updates reinforce the Open Document Format’s position as a comprehensive solution for office productivity and document creation.

“ODF provides a vendor-neutral foundation for office productivity and collaboration. With v1.4, the standard continues to evolve, supporting cloud collaboration, richer multimedia, and standardised security,” said Svante Schubert, Open Document Format’s TC Co-Chair. “Looking ahead, ODF is moving beyond document exchange towards standardised, semantic, change-based collaboration, enabling the meaningful sharing of interoperable changes across platforms.”

ODF v1.4 safeguards digital sovereignty by removing a single vendor’s control over documents and returning it to the community, to allows individuals and enterprises to independently decide how and with whom to share content, preventing it from being analysed for commercial purposes or potentially shared without the legitimate owner’s knowledge.
Like all other versions of the standard format, ODF 1.4 is based on an XML schema that complies with simplicity and readability guidelines, making files much more robust and secure than those commonly found on the market.

Overall, this is another significant step towards transparency, openness and digital sovereignty, thanks to the collaborative efforts of open-source software developers, advocates and users.
The finalized four-part specification of ODF v1.4 can be found in the OASIS library by clicking here: docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.4/os/.

The announcement mentions OASIS sponsors who have not contributed to the development of ODF 1.4, whereas The Document Foundation, which funded the development of the standard alongside companies such as Microsoft and has always advocated for it, is not mentioned at all. Unfortunately, business is business, even when it comes to open standards.

ODF 1.4 New Features

General

• The writing direction specification has been expanded and clarified.
• Complex backgrounds, such as colour gradients or hatching, can now be applied to a wider range of objects.
• Objects can be marked as “decorative” to support accessibility technologies.
• Shapes can now contain not only simple text and lists, but also tables.
• The method for specifying …

The Document Foundation (TDF) is the non-profit entity behind the LibreOffice project. It collects donations from users, and employs a small team to support and coordinate the worldwide community that makes the software. In TDF there are various bodies including the Board of Directors, Membership Committee, and the Board of Trustees:

These foundation bodies are guided by a set of policies, and now the Board of Directors has voted on a Code of Ethics and Fiduciary Duties. The code ensures that members of the Board of Directors “strive to speak and act with the mission and effectiveness and the best interest, and only the interest, of the foundation in mind.” See here for the results of the vote.

Click here for the full Code of Ethics and Fiduciary Duties

Reliable data flows, verifiable signatures and predictable structures are essential for digital identity systems, which touch every aspect of modern digital life. They authorise transactions, confirm requests and guarantee security policies.

In this context, the Open Document Format (ODF) offers a transparent, computer-readable foundation for verifying the authenticity of documents and ensuring their long-term integrity.

Each ODF file is a structured ZIP container with a consistent internal layout. It contains a set of XML files that are always located in the same position. These files include meta.xml for metadata, manifest.xml for the list of files and relationships, content.xml for document data and styles.xml for presentation rules. The files are either ODT (text), ODS (spreadsheets), ODP (presentations) or ODG (drawings).

Because everything is in XML format and in the same location, identity systems can analyse the content without searching for it as they would with OOXML files, which vary greatly depending on the application used to create them. Identity systems can therefore focus on specific parts of a file rather than scanning raw binary blocks, which are present in OOXML files.

This is important for signing, integrity validation, metadata extraction and policy enforcement. When documents move from one identity platform to another, APIs can map ODF elements in a stable manner, reducing ambiguity and improving verification speed.

Document Signing

ODF supports the XML Signature and XML Encryption standards via the META-INF/documentsignatures.xml file. This file can contain multiple independent signatures, each relating to specific parts of the document. The signature refers to an explicit path within the ZIP container, making automatic verification easier and avoiding confusion caused by false errors resulting from layout changes.

Each document can contain user signatures, organisational seals, timestamps, and workflow attestations. Each signature can also contain its own certificate chain, revocation information, and policies.

ODF is compatible with standard X.509 certificates, enabling the use of national eIDAS identification systems and corporate PKI systems. Verification pipelines can apply the same trust rules used for signed emails or encrypted communications.

Interoperability and Identity Federation

Digital identity works best when it is portable. ODF’s openness supports this by avoiding vendor-specific binary constructs. Any identity framework can be integrated with ODF because its schema is public and stable, its structure is predictable, and there are no proprietary validators.

In federated identity ecosystems, such as cross-border government services or multi-cloud enterprise configurations, ODF reduces friction and ensures that documents remain compatible, even when authentication systems differ.

Long-Term Signature Validation and Archival Use

In some cases, identity systems must verify a document signed many years earlier, which requires long-term validation. ODF supports long-term authentication because its XML structure is future-proof: it can store timestamps, revocation data and certificate chains, and it avoids vendor-specific cryptographic formats.

In legal, regulatory and archival contexts, this aspect is more important than speed. Formats that rely on proprietary rendering engines risk becoming unreadable over time, whereas ODF remains readable, even many years later.

ODF in Zero Trust Workflows

In Zero …

Tokyo, Japan – The LibreOffice Asia Conference 2025 is scheduled to take place on December 13-14, 2025, at the Internet Initiative Japan Inc. headquarters in Iidabashi Grand Bloom, Tokyo. The event will bring together the Asian Open Source community to discuss developments in LibreOffice, the OpenDocument Format (ODF), and related technologies.

The conference features a diverse lineup of international speakers covering various technical and community-oriented topics. Below is an overview of the sessions organized by the speakers’ regions.

Indonesia: Massive Contribution and Regeneration

The Indonesian delegation brings a strong spirit of sharing. Diah Asyanti will recount the inspiring journey of open document adoption by educators in Indonesia, a significant step for the education sector. Community sustainability is also a key focus for Ahmad Haris, who will thoroughly explore the challenges and strategies for regenerating young talent in FOSS projects.

Equally engaging, Rania Amina invites participants to dive into the fun side of contributing to LibreOffice, debunking the myth that contribution is difficult or boring. For technical enthusiasts, Sartika Lestari is ready to share practical tips on LibreOffice automation using Python ScriptForge.

Japan: Host with Technical and Community Focus

As the host, the Japanese community presents topics highly relevant for both new users and developers. Kenta Ito & Yuichi Kojima will lead a beginner-friendly session designed to help users transition smoothly to LibreOffice Writer.

On the innovation front, Koji Annoura will introduce “Dana Language,” an intriguing new approach to intent-driven automation. Meanwhile, Saburo Yoshida will open perspectives on how contributing to LibreOffice is inclusive and not limited to programming skills alone.

Germany: Standards and Business

Perspectives from Europe, specifically Germany, will enrich participants’ understanding of standards and business. Svante Schubert will emphasize why the OASIS OpenDocument Format (ODF) standard is crucial for long-term interoperability. Complementing this, Lothar K. Becker will dissect how Open Source has become a strategic competitive factor for the private sector.

Taiwan: Customization and Debugging

Experts from Taiwan are set to share deep technical techniques. Jia, Jun Xu will demonstrate how customizing key components can significantly boost productivity. For those who love problem-solving, Buo-ren Lin & Po-Yen Huang will introduce the unique “Vibe-debugging” method to tackle bugs in LibreOffice.

Other International Participation

The conference is further colored by speakers from around the globe. From India, Manish Bera will share effective strategies for growing the LibreOffice community. Tomaž Vajngerl from Slovenia will showcase cutting-edge features in Collabora Online.

Important updates regarding the community and ODF status in South Korea will be delivered by DaeHyun Sung. Finally, Eyal Rozenberg will raise vital issues regarding non-Western script support, uniting the interests of RTL and CJK language communities.

The LibreOffice Asia Conference 2025 aims to foster collaboration among Asian communities and promote the advancement of free and open-source office software.

Registration and Participation Details

Participation in the conference is free of charge, but advance registration is required via the Connpass platform.

• Registration Link
• Fee: Free
• Venue: Internet Initiative Japan Inc. Head Office, Iidabashi Grand Bloom, Tokyo

Important Notice for International Participants

The Connpass registration system …