Oooh, how mysterious. I was listening to the Redmonk Podcast with Simon Phipps about yesterday's announcement of the ODF Translator project. Towards the end Simon is asked to talk about the ODF Foundation plug-in he saw demonstrated in Brussels on Tuesday.

Simon explains that he was at a private event held under "Chatham House Rules" and that he'll "need to check with the people who demonstrated there to find out whether he can actually say what he saw". I understood The Chatham House Rule allowed you to use/discuss the information you'd gained but shouldn't identify/attribute participants. The Chatham House web site says the rule "originated with the aim of providing anonymity to speakers and to encourage openness and the sharing of information".

Now, by coincidence, OpenForum Europe's press release cautiously welcoming Microsoft's announcement yesterday also mentions that "This week OFE, in partnership with the ODF Alliance has been running briefings in Europe to senior government officials on the impact of ODF, and were able to see one live demonstration of the plug-ins, similar to that now being proposed by Microsoft."

Could these be one and the same? If so why is Simon so circumspect in discussing what happened on Tuesday? There's no mention of these meetings on OpenForumEurope's web site or the ODF Alliance's. 

All very mysterious - it appeals to the Mulder in me. Why so much secrecy? What's being hidden? Who attended Tuesday's "private meeting" I wonder.

On reflection it seems unlikely it would be the "senior government officials" that OFE/ODFA were lobbying. Whoever it was they clearly weren't football fans. The truth is out there.