Ensuring data is widely accessible is a key concern for
all businesses, says Jack Schofield
There are three ages of computing: the age of hardware, the age
of software, and the age of data. It is data compatibility that is
now becoming most important.
In the first age of computing, it was the choice of hardware
that ultimately drove the business – were you an IBM or DEC shop?
In the second age, hardware brands generally became less important
than the operating system and applications. Businesses chose Unix
or Microsoft Windows, DB2 or Oracle, Lotus Notes or Novell
Groupwise.
Today, there is no doubt that IT is starting to revolve around
data and file formats. Which is not to claim that this is a new
idea or that data formats have not been important before. Of course
they have – look at the impact of SQL. But formats are becoming a
central concern for a number of reasons.
First, data is now horribly expensive to create and store, while
hardware and software have become relatively cheap.
Second, data needs to be accessed more widely by more devices:
it is online and on the desktop, as well as on the server; you may
need to access it from a mobile phone or PDA, or from several
different applications, not just a VT100 terminal.
Third, regulatory changes on data retention and protection, and
long-term access to it, mean businesses have to take the problems
seriously.
The point is that multiple applications from multiple suppliers
should be able to generate compatible files. Microsoft’s response
includes its XML-based Office Open file formats, which are being
standardised via industry association ECMA. These will be the
default when Office System 2007 launches next January.
Again, other firms will be able to produce compatible files –
Novell has already produced a prototype for the capability. And,
yes, Microsoft really wants you to convert billions of old .doc
files, and will provide batch programs to do it.
Microsoft has also provided PDF support in the beta version of
Office 2007, though this has led to a spat with Adobe, which claims
to be worried about Microsoft embracing and extending the
standard.
On the web, Yahoo has gone further to include microformats such
as hReview, hCard and hCalendar (Computer Weekly, 24 January).
I believe microformats based on XHTML are going to be important
in making data accessible over the internet – that means re-usable
data in standard fields. Microsoft is also aware of the issues, and
it would be nice if Google woke up.
It is a pretty safe bet that every established business has run
into the problem of needing access to data in old files it can no
longer read because either the hardware or software no longer
exists. That is normal. But looking ahead, it won’t be, because it
can’t be.
Jack Schofield is computer editor at The
Guardian