The role of ODF in digital sovereignty (digital freedom)

Digital sovereignty, or the ability of nations, organisations and individuals to control their own digital destiny, is a fundamental issue of the 21st century. At the heart of this challenge lies a seemingly trivial question: who controls the format of the documents that contain our intellectual property or personal information?

In this context, the standard and open Open Document Format (ODF) – the native format of LibreOffice documents, also supported by other suites – is the fundamental technology for those seeking true digital independence.

Digital sovereignty includes the ability to control access to one’s own information without depending on third parties, to make independent technological choices based on one’s own needs, to ensure independent access to strategic data without depending on the commercial interests of Big Tech, and to maintain this technological self-determination in the face of market consolidation.

When government agencies, businesses, or citizens store their documents in proprietary formats controlled by Big Tech, they surrender part of their sovereignty and depend on these external entities to access their own information.

Why document formats are important for sovereignty

Document formats are infrastructure, which—like roads, power grids, or telecommunications networks—are fundamental to the functioning of modern societies. Consider what happens when strategic documents exist only in formats controlled by a single vendor:

• Vendor Lock-In: Organisations find themselves trapped, unable to switch to alternative software without costly conversion processes and potential data loss.
• Loss of Control: formats can and do change without notice and beyond the control of users, increasing the effect of vendor lock-in.
• Fragility of Access: if the vendor controlling the format changes the format or discontinues support, as was the case with Windows 10, access to documents becomes problematic or impossible.
• Economic Dependency: The cost of the licence required to perform software updates creates a relationship of economic dependency in order to access one’s own data, and effectively transfers ownership of the data to the vendor that controls the format.

Why ODF is the only tool for digital sovereignty

ODF is governed by OASIS, an international standardisation organisation that protects its transparent development, and is published as ISO/IEC 26300-2015 (and soon ISO/IEC 26300-2025). Unlike proprietary formats, ODF specifications are public and can be freely implemented, are developed through a transparent, multi-stakeholder process, are not controlled by a single government or company, and are subject to international standardisation bodies.

This means that governments and companies can participate in defining the format specifications, rather than being forced to passively accept changes imposed by a single vendor based on its commercial strategies.

Thus, ODF specifications allow anyone to create an office suite that natively supports the format and promotes digital sovereignty, without any authorisation, licence fees or fear of legal action, while supporting the local software industry.

ODF enables true interoperability, not only between different software packages, but also between countries, languages and political systems. A document created in Brazil can be opened and edited in India, Germany or Japan using locally developed software. This breaks down digital barriers and enables the creation of diverse, independent technology ecosystems.

A stack for digital sovereignty

Digital sovereignty requires a multi-layered infrastructure, starting with the ODF open standard format to ensure format independence, moving on to an open source office suite such as LibreOffice to have control over the tool, an open source cloud infrastructure such as Nextcloud to have control over the location of the data, and ending with a legislative framework that defines the requirements for sovereignty.

ODF is at the base of the stack because without an open standard for document format, digital sovereignty is still limited, even with elements such as a law favouring open source software, an open source cloud infrastructure, and an open source office suite.

Challenges for adopting the ODF format

Adopting the open standard ODF format for digital sovereignty is not without its challenges, for several reasons:

• Migration from proprietary formats requires planning, training and, in many cases, managing interoperability issues due to unnecessary complexities artificially built into the proprietary format.
• When stakeholders in the organisation continue to use the proprietary format, exchanging documents in ODF format can create interoperability issues, as office suites that do not use ODF as their native format have problems handling ODF files appropriately.
• Implementing policies focused on digital sovereignty requires a clear commitment from management, which must prioritise long-term independence over short-term convenience.

However, all of these challenges can be managed and tend to diminish over time, while the constraints and costs of dependence on proprietary formats become increasingly severe.