That sparked an outcry from various organizations representing that community.

The emergence of plug-ins that can be used to save documents in ODF prompted Gutierrez to issue a request for information on the technology. Now ITD will be following through with testing of the ODF plug-ins in preparation for a phased rollout, expected to begin later this year, according to sources at yesterday's meeting.

Winske said that Gutierrez told the group there would be no mass migration to open-source Office applications. But Gutierrez reaffirmed ITD's commitment to its ODF policy, in keeping with its goal of moving away from proprietary formats for the long-term preservation of documents, according to Winske.