IBM on Monday joined the OpenOffice.org community, providing a boost to supporters of the Open Document Format (ODF).

The company will contribute code from the development of its Lotus Notes software, and it will in turn make use of the OpenOffice.org application suite in its own products.

OpenOffice.org is a popular open-source office-productivity suite, featuring applications including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program and database, among other programs.

John McCreesh, marketing project lead for OpenOffice.org, said IBM's participation was "great news".

McCreesh said: "We welcome IBM's contributions to further enhancing the OpenOffice.org product. But equally important is IBM's future commitment to package and distribute new works that leverage OpenOffice.org technology supporting the ISO Open Document Format standard. ODF is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the IT industry to unify round a standard and deliver lasting benefit to all users of desktop technology."

IBM claimed that joining OpenOffice.org would be a major step in furthering the cause of ODF, which is currently competing against Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) standard.

"We believe that this relationship will improve our ability to deliver innovative value to users of IBM products and services. We also believe that the collaboration will lead to an even broader range of ODF-supporting applications and solutions that draw from the OpenOffice.org technology," said Mike Rhodin, general manager of IBM's Lotus division.