Joe Wilcox over at Microsoft Watch is the first media analyst to offer clear insight -- "When is 'Open' More Open for Microsoft?" -- as to why the MS OOXML file format is driving Microsoft so insane to get approval from the International Standards Organization (ISO)...
OOXML has already received Ecma standards certification, but needs ISO approval, too. Approval would bring OOXML on a standards level with competing ODF and could help advance the Microsoft format's customer adoption.
The latter objective is similar to VC-1 and Silverlight: OOXML would be more open for Microsoft than other developers. ISO certification is important to Microsoft because:
- OOXML is the default for Office 2007
- OOXML is important for the advancement of other Microsoft strategies, such as business intelligence.
- The format will plug into some of Microsoft's future work around enterprise informational and Web services, collaboration and content archival
OOXML is much more than a file format; it's being groomed for a platform role, similar to VC-1 and Silverlight.
This will explain in part why the 6,000 pages of the OOXML specification is such a strange read. Good get, Joe!
OOXML is really an insertion strategy -- a Trojan Horse -- for a proprietary XML platform on which much of Microsoft's next generation product catalog will depend.
Denmark? NOW do you want to sanction both ODF and OOXML for government business processes? If so, you will be falling into a trap. When a government approves a document format, it wants to approve a document format, not a Swiss Army Knife.
Comments