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Microsoft asked to join the INCITS/V1 Technical Committee on March 15. This committee is responsible for reconciling the votes that are cast by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) over the acceptance of the OpenDocument format.
Pamela Jones, who runs legal Web site Groklaw, speculated that Microsoft may have joined the group to sabotage the ratification of ODF, hoping to give its rival standard a chance to catch up. Last year, Microsoft submitted its Office Open XML file formats to European standards body ECMA International, as a prelude to seeking ISO standardization later.
"There sits Microsoft, waiting, like a spider," Jones wrote in a posting on her site. "I am imagining ODF plodding along, with Microsoft asking questions, fine-combing through the comments, 'did you mean this or that?', getting bogged down in minutia until, lo and behold, either Microsoft's XML makes it as an ISO standard first, or they arrive neck and neck."
But Microsoft denied this accusation, saying that the only reason why Microsoft employee Jim Thatcher joined the group was to get involved in the ISO standardization of its own file format.
"In order for Jim to participate in the future Open XML File Format work he needs to have standing in JTC1 SC 34 (a committee that mirrors INCITS/V1) which mandates participation over time. His presence in this group will have no impact upon the voting process for the ODF standard. Just as we have a seat on the board of Oasis and have not participated in the ODF process there, we will not participate in the JTC1 process," Jason Matusow, Microsoft's director of standards affairs, said in a statement.
This news comes shortly after Microsoft announced the formation of a new developer effort centered around its open file formats, known as the Open XML Formats Developer Group. According to Microsoft, 39 companies have signed up already, including Intel, Apple Computer and Toshiba.
The Office Open XML file formats will be supported by the upcoming late-running version of Microsoft's office productivity suite, Office 2007. OpenDocument is already supported by a number of productivity applications including the open-source office suite OpenOffice 2.0 and Sun's StarOffice 8.
Ingrid Marson of ZDNet UK reported from London.
See more CNET content tagged:
OpenDocument Format, standardization, committee, XML, Microsoft Corp.
All Microsoft really needs if for whatever format people use to properly support its features.
I suspect this is more about Microsoft making sure the OS club isn't pretending to be open while trying to lock Microsoft out with its own format play.
There is tons a great software that is OS, but there are also some really territorial egos in the OS industry that are as much about beating Microsoft as they are making great tools.
Hint: Companies that fail do so when they get MS envy and try to beat MS rather than serve the user. Novel, Corel, Lotus, and others always failed when their business model shifted from pleasing the customer to beating Microsoft.
Some of this MS we have to get OD approved first is just so much OS arrogance. If the standard is open and extensible it doesn't matter who drafted the best one, it matters which one is best.
Look what they did to Java, that's how they play the game. It's their way or no way. So what if it costs a few billions in lawsuit settlements, the customers will foot the bill...as long as their locked in what choice do they have.
Trusting Microsoft to provide a standard is like allowing the Mafia to look after people's money.
http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/2005/06/01/424085.aspx
In other words it will still be a MS proprietary format that cannot be licensed under the GPL, etc.
If MS wanted to be "open" they could adopt the OpenDocument format and contribute anything they thought of value to the group.
But if they did that then MS Office would work perfectly with files created by OpenOffice, StarOffice, etc. and Microsoft would lose their biggest advantage over competing Office packages.
they either plan to spy or sabatoge (or both)
the "we need experience" claim just doesn't cut it. oh, sure they need experience, but putting then on a steering comittee for a standard they have publicly refused to consider to use is like giving prisoners the job hiring and firing prison guards. the standards are there to strengthen the field but they will only hamstring the process until it is useless
Microsoft has publicly stated they would not support opendocument. this is consistant with their policy to snub international standards in favor of their own propriatary standard that they may change at the toss of a hat. Most notably is the fact that IE refuses to comply to the WWW standard for internet browsers.
and this is just M$ saying "pay us $400 now, and $200 every two years after this, and we will allow you exchange information with everyone else who also paid our ransom demand"
while OpenOffice says "pay no money now or ever and we will allow you to exchange information with anyone using a progran that follows an independantly overseen format... and if we don't have the features you want you can use any of those programs other compliant programs."
the only major company to consistantly refuse to cooperate with public standards is Micro$oft.
they do it because they have a monopoly and they would need to improve their final products to compete with the sea of better built and less expensive products if their program's output could be generated by a competitor on these better programs.
All Microsoft really needs if for whatever format people use to properly support its features.
I suspect this is more about Microsoft making sure the OS club isn't pretending to be open while trying to lock Microsoft out with its own format play.
There is tons a great software that is OS, but there are also some really territorial egos in the OS industry that are as much about beating Microsoft as they are making great tools.
Hint: Companies that fail do so when they get MS envy and try to beat MS rather than serve the user. Novel, Corel, Lotus, and others always failed when their business model shifted from pleasing the customer to beating Microsoft.
Some of this MS we have to get OD approved first is just so much OS arrogance. If the standard is open and extensible it doesn't matter who drafted the best one, it matters which one is best.
Look what they did to Java, that's how they play the game. It's their way or no way. So what if it costs a few billions in lawsuit settlements, the customers will foot the bill...as long as their locked in what choice do they have.
Trusting Microsoft to provide a standard is like allowing the Mafia to look after people's money.
http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/2005/06/01/424085.aspx
In other words it will still be a MS proprietary format that cannot be licensed under the GPL, etc.
If MS wanted to be "open" they could adopt the OpenDocument format and contribute anything they thought of value to the group.
But if they did that then MS Office would work perfectly with files created by OpenOffice, StarOffice, etc. and Microsoft would lose their biggest advantage over competing Office packages.
they either plan to spy or sabatoge (or both)
the "we need experience" claim just doesn't cut it. oh, sure they need experience, but putting then on a steering comittee for a standard they have publicly refused to consider to use is like giving prisoners the job hiring and firing prison guards. the standards are there to strengthen the field but they will only hamstring the process until it is useless
Microsoft has publicly stated they would not support opendocument. this is consistant with their policy to snub international standards in favor of their own propriatary standard that they may change at the toss of a hat. Most notably is the fact that IE refuses to comply to the WWW standard for internet browsers.
and this is just M$ saying "pay us $400 now, and $200 every two years after this, and we will allow you exchange information with everyone else who also paid our ransom demand"
while OpenOffice says "pay no money now or ever and we will allow you to exchange information with anyone using a progran that follows an independantly overseen format... and if we don't have the features you want you can use any of those programs other compliant programs."
the only major company to consistantly refuse to cooperate with public standards is Micro$oft.
they do it because they have a monopoly and they would need to improve their final products to compete with the sea of better built and less expensive products if their program's output could be generated by a competitor on these better programs.
I consider this to be a big news for several reasons:
A. It is showing the first signes of Microsoft's new commitment to "open" (as recently announced in Mix '06).
B. It will hopefully boost the competition among the office software makers giving us, end users, better choice.
C. It will give others (smaller and innovative companies) more chance to create MS Office compatible tools
D. They' ve also done it because they feel the pressure of the OpenOffice and the major non-US companies looking into it as a replacement for MS Office. I think that Microsoft realized that they need to be competitive on the same turf and against the same standard.
E. Ironically, it is an indicator to me that Microsoft is moving over being solely focused on the office tools on the desktop.
I do not think they would be joining open standards that they still consider this their main, strategic software. They would keep it closed and well guarded.
Edmon Begoli
http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/eai/software
I consider this to be a big news for several reasons:
A. It is showing the first signes of Microsoft's new commitment to "open" (as recently announced in Mix '06).
B. It will hopefully boost the competition among the office software makers giving us, end users, better choice.
C. It will give others (smaller and innovative companies) more chance to create MS Office compatible tools
D. They' ve also done it because they feel the pressure of the OpenOffice and the major non-US companies looking into it as a replacement for MS Office. I think that Microsoft realized that they need to be competitive on the same turf and against the same standard.
E. Ironically, it is an indicator to me that Microsoft is moving over being solely focused on the office tools on the desktop.
I do not think they would be joining open standards that they still consider this their main, strategic software. They would keep it closed and well guarded.
Edmon Begoli
http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/eai/software
OS/2 has native implementation of SMB/CIFS server/client set - IBM LAN Manager and IBM Peer...."
http://search.netscape.com/ns/boomframe.jsp?query=os%2F2+News&page=1&offset=1&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%26requestId%3Dc1a1be14c9a771e7%26clickedItemRank%3D1%26userQuery%3Dos%252F2%2BNews%26clickedItemURN%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.os2bbs.com%252Fos2news%252F%26invocationType%3D-%26fromPage%3DNSCPResultsT%26amp%3BampTest%3D1&remove_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.os2bbs.com%2Fos2news%2F
there may very well be some degree of fear at REDMOND for "an open standard for office documents".
Now talk about the Windows OS, and it's just as buggy as ever. Marketing and OEM lock-in agreements got them on to most desktops in the world. Swiftly, Mac OSX and Linux (mostly the Ubuntu family, and maybe Linspire and Mandriva) are begining to eat at the market share. Windows in the server market is still way behind even Linux. We will probably see something significant in the desktop market in the next couple of years, as things mature further.
OS/2 has native implementation of SMB/CIFS server/client set - IBM LAN Manager and IBM Peer...."
http://search.netscape.com/ns/boomframe.jsp?query=os%2F2+News&page=1&offset=1&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%26requestId%3Dc1a1be14c9a771e7%26clickedItemRank%3D1%26userQuery%3Dos%252F2%2BNews%26clickedItemURN%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.os2bbs.com%252Fos2news%252F%26invocationType%3D-%26fromPage%3DNSCPResultsT%26amp%3BampTest%3D1&remove_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.os2bbs.com%2Fos2news%2F
there may very well be some degree of fear at REDMOND for "an open standard for office documents".
Now talk about the Windows OS, and it's just as buggy as ever. Marketing and OEM lock-in agreements got them on to most desktops in the world. Swiftly, Mac OSX and Linux (mostly the Ubuntu family, and maybe Linspire and Mandriva) are begining to eat at the market share. Windows in the server market is still way behind even Linux. We will probably see something significant in the desktop market in the next couple of years, as things mature further.
- go microsoft!
- by alek_nedic April 18, 2006 2:17 PM PDT
- http://www.analogstereo.com/vacuum/sitemap.htm
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- go microsoft!
- by alek_nedic April 18, 2006 2:19 PM PDT
- http://www.analogstereo.com/index.htm
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