OpenDocument gets standards stamp

The OASIS standards body said Monday that its members have ratified OpenDocument, an XML-based file format for desktop applications, as a standard available on a royalty-free basis.

The OpenDocument format is used as the default in the open-source productivity suite OpenOffice for text, spreadsheet and presentation documents. Novell and Sun Microsystems market products and services based on OpenOffice. IBM, too, intends to support the OpenDocument format in the light-weight productivity applications it includes in its Workplace offering, according to Ambuj Goyal, the general manager of IBM's Lotus division. The full name for the standardized OpenDocument software is Open Document Format for Office Applications version 1.0. OASIS is an acronym for the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards.