One of the industry's current entertainments is the
argument about
office file formats. Microsoft last month voted in favour of
ODF
(
Open Document Format) becoming an ANSI standard. This was one
in the eye for ODF backer IBM, which voted against
Microsoft's Open XML at standards body ECMA.
Microsoft can easily explain this: it is in favour of customer
choice, whereas IBM is against it.
The reality, of course, is that Microsoft is in favour of
customers choosing Microsoft Office, whereas IBM is in favour of
them choosing Lotus Notes. But you still have to wonder why IBM,
which usually puts a lot of effort into talking up its openness,
put itself in a position where it looks hypocritical.
When Open XML was standardised as ECMA-376,
the committee included Apple, Intel, the British Library and
many others.
Tom Robertson, Microsoft's general manager of interoperability
and standards, says, "Twenty members voted for standardisation and
20 voted to send it on to the ISO for ratification. One tried to
block it, and that was IBM."
He adds that IBM then mounted "a comprehensive global
resource-intensive effort" to try to convince people that Open XML
should not even be considered. "That was clearly an attempt to
advance IBM's commercial interest in
Lotus Notes," says Robertson.
Well, one comprehensive global resource-intensive effort begets
another. Robertson says that, previously, Microsoft's strategy for
promoting openness had been left "for the most part to the
different product groups". That changed 18 months ago, when it
decided to take a company-wide approach.
The battle plan is based on a four-pronged attack: designing
products for interoperability, collaborating with partners,
providing access to technology through licensing and community
programmes, and putting technologies up for standardisation.
Examples of this strategy include the Interoperability Vendor
Alliance, which does compatibility tests, and the Interoperability
Executive Customer Council for CIOs. The access component includes
the open specification promise, which allows free use of some
patents, and a few open source projects. Open XML is poster boy for
the standards effort.
It is an impossible task. As with IBM, it would take decades to
transform Microsoft. Also, Open XML will never win over ODF
proponents: nothing would. However, the new formats are more open,
more accessible and more standardised than the old binary ones.
Pragmatists, at least, will welcome them as a step in the right
direction.
Developers produce first ODF and XML translator >>
Microsoft backs
ODF standard >>
The Guardian: Jack
Schofield's blog >>
Interoperability Vendor
Alliance >>
Microsoft: interoperability,
choice and open XML >>
IBM:
accessibility ODF coding challenge >>
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