Public Description:

nfoWorks consists of software tools, guidance, and reference implementations of information-worker software for collaboration via open-standard documents. Interchange and interconvertiblity is by implementing only compatible subsets of the standards. 

Registration Description:

For the initial conception, see http://orcmid.com/BlunderDome/clueless/2008/02/odf-ooxml-nfoworks-for-harmony.asp

There are activities to develop translations among open-standard formats such as ODF, OOXML, and UOF (the Chinese standard for office documents), and some of those projects are here on SourceForge (odf-converter and uof-translator).  The new b2xtranslator project may also provide useful input to other translator projects, although its focus is on de factor binary formats, not open-standard ones.

The unique focus of nfoWorks is on (1) starting with tiny subsets that work; (2) only adding "safe" features as they are identified and their inter-translation is confirmed; (3) providing a way to identify that a document relies on a selection of safe features in a way, yet to be worked out, that protects users from inadvertently introducing incompatibilities; and, (4) relying on neutral technology and portable code wherever possible and only using freely-available tools.