Former open source evangelist at Sun, reported on his blog, on a presentation he had given at a conference in Latvia concerning the ODF. Speaking before him, a Latvian government official had made the announcement that, from now on, all government departments in Latvia must accept documents in ODF. As confirmed by OSEPA figures, Phipps said that the move isn't limited to this small Baltic state, but that it is part of a larger development in progress among public administrations across Europe: nobody wants to force citizens to use a commercial office package when communicating with their public authorities.