Microsoft Watch: Massachusetts State Agencies draft plan to use open formats
Tussle over Office format (report at Seattle PI):
Massachusetts has caused a stir with a draft plan calling for state agencies to adopt the OASIS OpenDocument format by Jan. 1, 2007. Such a move would shift those agencies away from Microsoft Office to alternative programs.
More information is available on this Massachusetts site. Here's the statement on the issue from Massachusetts Chief Information Officer Peter Quinn. The draft document (PDF,
pages 16-20) outlines the plan to shift to open formats. It defines
open formats not as those "controlled and supported by just one
software developer" but rather as those that are "based on an
underlying open standard, developed by an open community, affirmed and
maintained by a standards body and are fully documented and publicly
available."
Microsoft is shifting in the next version of Office to a format that it calls "Microsoft Office Open XML." As noted previously,
however, the format doesn't seem to fit the traditional definition of
"open." Responding to the Massachusetts developments, Microsoft today
issued a statement that read, in part:
We share
the view that XML is the ideal format for data interoperability and
archiving of public records, and that is why deep support for industry
standard XML has been key for Office development for many years.
However we don’t believe the answer to public records management is to
force a single document format on everyone which may be less functional
than what they already have.
It’s an odd proposal when other Massachusetts state agencies are
actively talking to us about how our products can best meet all their
data and records needs – from traditional documents to pictures, audio,
video, voice, voice-over-IP as it develops, data, database schema, web
pages, and XML information. As we look to the future, all of these
forms are becoming increasingly intertwined. Locked in formats like
OpenDocument do not adequately address that issue – as this proposal
acknowledges. It’s specifically this need for choice and flexibility
led Microsoft to design Office in a way that supports any XML schemas
that a customer chooses, a capability lacking in less functional
formats.
See additional coverage by the Financial Times, BetaNews and CNet News.com. Microsoft's Brian Jones weighs in here, and David Berlind of ZDNet comments on Jones' post in this blog entry.
6:06:56 PM 
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