Ecma to create standard out of Microsoft's PDF rival
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(InfoWorld) - Standards body Ecma International has formed a technical committee to develop a standard built on Microsoft's XML Paper Specification (XPS), a rival file format to Adobe Systems' Portable Document Format (PDF). According to Ecma's Web site, the goal of the TC46 - XPS Technical Committee is to create "a formal standard for an XML-based electronic paper format and XML-based page description language which is consistent with existing implementations of the format called the XML Paper Specification." XPS is one of many file formats natively supported in Microsoft's Office 2007 productivity suite and was developed internally by the company. Currently, Microsoft has the only implementation of XPS. Microsoft had planned to include PDF -- used widely as a de facto document standard for years but only submitted to a standards body earlier this year by Adobe -- as a native file format as well, but Adobe put the kibosh on that plan. Microsoft does offer PDF as an add-on file format for Office. Microsoft has been criticized by rivals for how it has handled submissions to standards bodies, though the company has instituted a formal interoperability effort across all its product groups in the last 18 months in what is says is an effort to be more effort. Open XML, another Office 2007 file format for documents, already has won Ecma approval and will be put before the ISO toward the end of the year for a final vote as an international technology standard. But critics -- mainly those who support Open Document Format for XML (ODF) as the standard format rather than Open XML -- have complained that Microsoft is too controlling when it comes to ensuring the technology it submits to Ecma as a "standard" looks the way Microsoft wants it to at the end of the approval process. And since the company didn't allow third parties to create implementations of Open XML before it was submitted to Ecma, critics say Microsoft has misused the standards process, which is meant to be more open. Naysayers and rivals are using the creation of TC46 to discourage approval of Open XML -- now known as Ecma 376 in the standards approval process -- as an ISO standard. "If [Open XML], and now Microsoft XML Paper Specification, each sail through Ecma, and are then adopted by ISO/IEC JTC1, then I think that we might as well declare 'game over' for open standards," said Andrew Updegrove, an intellectual property attorney and outspoken open-standards and ODF advocate on his blog. "It's time for the national bodies to draw a line in the sand and reject Ecma 376 -- before it's too late." IBM's vice president of open source and standards Bob Sutor, also a vocal proponent of ODF -- particularly since his company supports it as a default file format in software products -- also criticized Ecma and Microsoft on his blog. He said Ecma will create a "standard" of XPS that goes along with Microsoft's wishes for the technology rather than letting an impartial group develop the standard. "The standard must be compatible with Microsoftâs implementation, which is the only implementation," Sutor said. "How open. How independent. How collaborative." Neither Microsoft nor Adobe could be reached for comment Friday.
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(InfoWorld) - MicrosoftÂ has achieved a small victory in itsÂ effort to make Open XML an open technology standard. Massachusetts, the U.S. state that has mandated the use of open technology formats in its government agencies, has put the specification on its list of possible standards that can be used for documents, according to a document on its Web site. The current 4.0 version of the state's Enterprise Technical Reference Model (ETRM) -- a framework defining where standards will be used and which ones are permissible -- lists Ecma-376 Office Open XML Formats (Open XML) as an acceptable "open format." The state is adding Open XML to a short list that also includes OASIS Open Document Format For Office Applications (ODF) v. 1.1, the current version of the rival standard supported by IBM, Sun Microsystems, and others. Bethann Pepoli, acting CIO for Massachusetts, said Monday that Open XML was added to the list because it now meets the commonwealth's criteria for an open standard, which requires that formats "are publicly available and are developed by an open community and affirmed by a standards body." Massachusetts has been releasing a revision to the ETRM every six months, and in December when the last version was released Open XML had only recently been approved by Ecma and did not have the required industry support, she said. Massachusetts residents have until July 20 to comment on the current draft of the ETRM. Microsoft submitted Open XML toÂ Ecma InternationalÂ in November 2004, and the standards organization hasÂ approved a final version of the specification. The International Organization for Standards (ISO) is expected to vote on the Ecma version of Open XML later this year. ODF already has been approved by the ISO as an international technology standard. In a statement through its public-relations firm Monday, Microsoft applauded the addition of Open XML to the Massachusetts list, saying it gives users "the ability to choose the open file format standard that best serves their needs." When Microsoft submitted Open XML to Ecma, the company said it was in part to make the document format Microsoft developed in house for its Office 2007 suite a more viable option for governments and other institutions that are beginning to standardize only on technology formats that are available for anyone to use. But critics -- mainly those who support ODF as in favor of Open XML as the standard for documents -- have complained that Microsoft has been too controlling when it comes to the Ecma standards process, ensuring the technology it submitted as a "standard" looked the way Microsoft wanted it to at the end of the approval process. And since the company didn't allow third parties to create implementations of Open XML before it was submitted, critics say Microsoft has misused the standards process, which is meant to be more open. One of those most outspoken critics, IBM's Vice President of Open Source and Standards Bob Sutor, Monday spoke out in favor of Massachusetts decision to let its residents review Open XML alongside other formats. However, he took a dig at Microsoft with a reminder that the ETRM is still only in draft form and that opposition remains to the state's decision to use Open XML as a standard. Â
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft Corp. and Novell Inc. have wasted little time in demonstrating there is real work being done as part of their recent Linux interoperability pact. Just a month afterÂ the historic deal between the companies, Novell said Monday it will support the proprietary document format in Microsoft Office 2007, Open XML, in its open-source version of the OpenOffice productivity suite by the end of January. Novell also will release software that will bidirectionally translate word processing, spreadsheets and presentations between its version of OpenOffice.org's productivity suite and Microsoft Office to the OpenOffice.org project so Open XML can become a part of that open-source project, the company said. However, this does not guarantee that Open XML will be integrated into the OpenOffice.org code, said Justin Steinman, a Novell director of marketing for Linux. "We are going to release the code to the open-source community. Whether it gets integrated or not is up to the community," he said. Novell and Microsoft worked together on the translation project, which will allow users of a new release of OpenOffice due in January to create, save and send files as Open XML documents, Steinman said. Creating interoperability between the OpenOffice and Microsoft Office suites was a goal that was part of the companies' deal, announced Nov. 2, to make Microsoft's proprietary software work more seamlessly with Novell's Suse Linux and other open-source software from the company. The Open XML work will ultimately allow users to more easily share files between Microsoft Office 2007 and OpenOffice, which support different document formats, Steinman said. The native document format in OpenOffice is OpenDocument Format (ODF), an XML-based file format recognized as a standard by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Microsoft so far has chosen not to support ODF and instead created its own file format, Open XML, for Office 2007. Microsoft's lack of support for ODF has been controversial, and the company further stirred up concern in the industry that it was trying to promote its own proprietary file format as an industry standard instead of ODF by submitting Open XML to Ecma International in November 2005. Ecma is a standards organization that can fast-track technology standards through the ISO. Ecma plans to vote on whether to approve Open XML for submission to the ISO as an international standard on Dec. 7. Microsoft released Office 2007, which supports Open XML, last week to business customers. The suite is expected to be widely available to consumers in retail outlets on Jan. 30.
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Adobe Systems Inc. plans to introduce a new format for digital photos on Monday in an attempt to create an industry public standard to make the archiving and editing process compatible across all types of cameras and photo software.
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(InfoWorld) - The Danish government could save around 125 million Danish krone ($21 million) over the next five years if it adopted the OpenOffice.org productivity software instead of upgrading to Microsoft's Office 2007 suite. Doing nothing could save it even more, according to a study by consultancy RambÃ¸ll Management A/S. RambÃ¸ll compared the cost of different ways of implementing the Danish Parliament's June 2 decision that government institutions exchanging information digitally with citizens or companies must do so in file formats based on open standards from Jan. 1, 2008. The Danish Open Source Business Association commissioned the report, which was published in Danish in August. An English version of the report was linked from the OpenOffice.orgÂ Web siteÂ last week. Adam Lebech, head of office at the Danish National IT and Telecom Agency, welcomed the debate the report had started, but warned that the numbers did not tell the whole story. "It's very difficult to make these calculations because you have to make a lot of assumptions," he said Wednesday. "The report doesn't look at savings from open standards, it only looks at costs. ... It's not a business case," he said. The report examined the cost of switching the exchange of documentation to two possible open standard document formats: Office Open XML and OpenDocument Format (ODF). Microsoft developed the Office Open XML file format for its Office 2007 software suite, and proposed it to European standards body ECMA International for standardization. In late August, an ECMA technical committee chaired by Microsoft was still discussing draft version 1.4 of the specification, whereas the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approved the rival ODF standard in May. ODF is the format used by open source software suite OpenOffice.org, and also by proprietary software including Sun Microsystems' StarOffice and IBM's WorkPlace. RambÃ¸ll estimated the cost of two ways the government could switch its document exchange to Office Open XML: by using free file translation tools Microsoft has said it will provide for existing versions of its Office software, or by upgrading to Office 2007 when it becomes available. For ODF, RambÃ¸ll compared the cost of migrating to OpenOffice.org software, or of using file translators, still in development, to open and save ODF documents from within Microsoft Office. It concluded that if the government continued its policy of progressively upgrading to newer versions of Microsoft Office, the cost of licensing and installing the upgrades, and switching document exchange to the Office Open XML format, would cost around 380 million krone. The cost of continuing to upgrade Microsoft Office whileÂ switching to ODFÂ would be slightly more, because of greater file conversion and support costs. Migrating from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org, while switching to ODF, would cost around 255 million krone, RambÃ¸ll said. The cheapest route, at 105 million krone, would be to adopt Office Open XML -- but to stick with the versions of Microsoft Office already in use, primarily Office XP and 2003, RambÃ¸ll said. Sticking with current versions of the software and switching to ODF would cost marginally more. The report, Estimating the Costs of Implementing Office OpenXML and ODF in the Central Government, isÂ available in EnglishÂ from Danish Open Source Business Association.ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
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(InfoWorld) - Corel Corp. is adopting a neutral approach to the electronic document format duel and updating its WordPerfect word processing software to fully support both the OpenDocument Format (ODF) and Microsoft Corp.'s Office Open XML formats. The Canadian software vendor announced its new stance Wednesday after previously appearing to favor ODF over the Microsoft format. ODF, backed by Sun Microsystems Inc., IBM Corp. and open-source players, is facing off against Microsoft's Open XML, which will be the default file format for the software giant's upcoming Office 2007 desktop applications suite. At issue is which document format users will favor. Governments around the world are expressing interest in open-standard document formats to help them both ensure continued access to existing information and to ease their dependence on Microsoft Office. Corel was one of the initial members of two groups set up in March to evangelize ODF -- the ODF Alliance and the OASIS standards body's ODF Adoption Committee. Corel developer Paul Langille was also one of the original four authors of the ODF specification. Corel arrived at its decision to support both ODF and Open XML over the last few months, according to Richard Carriere, the company's general manager of office productivity. The vendor wants to meet the needs of both consumer and government users, with consumers looking to Corel to offer interoperability with Office 2007 and governments keen for the company to support ODF, he said. As a small desktop applications provider with some 11 million active users, Corel needs to be very flexible and can ill afford to back one format over another. It's also still unclear which document format will win out -- ODF or Open XML -- or whether both will coexist, Carriere said. "Companies and governments have not made a decision yet," he added. Corel is announcing joint support plans as Microsoft prepares to launchÂ Office 2007 Thursday. Come the middle of next year, Corel aims to offer open, view and edit support for both ODF and Open XML as an initial move toward fully supporting both formats, Carriere said. He wouldn't comment on the time line for when Corel will fully support the format, but said the vendor's efforts will be driven by the needs of its government customers. Â
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In response, Adobe releases a new version of both Acrobat and Reader.
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Analysts and authors expect Adobe to release a new version of its publishing software soon.
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Citing major collaborative contributions from a dozen companies and institutions, including Novell, Apple, Intel, the British Library, and the US Library of Congress, the Ecma International standards body today approved what will now be called Ecma Open XML - formerly Microsoft's "Office Open XML" - as an international standard for document formatting.
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Office Open XML, the default file format in Office 2007, was certified Thursday as a standard at Ecma International.
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New service lets Adobe customers transmit documents for commercial production.
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Did Redmond try to pack standards groups? Microsoft's failed attempt to get its Office Open XML (OOXML) file format adopted by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) could land the software giant in hot water with the European Commission (EC).â¦
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Standards wars? Mini-Poll Long, long ago, in an industry far, far away, a number of large companies struggled to decide whether to adopt a document interchange format as a global standard.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - Standards body Ecma International expects to publish the final draft of the Office Open XML file formats specification proposed by Microsoft Corp. as early as Monday, ahead of a formal vote to adopt the specification as a standard in December. Governments are taking an interest in open-standard document formats as a way to guarantee access to legacy public information, and to avoid dependence on developers of proprietary software. Denmark's government voted in June to mandate the use of open-standard document formats in central government from Jan. 1, 2008. For now, five ministries are testing the OpenDocument Format (ODF) standard, used in open-source software suite OpenOffice.org, and also in proprietary software including Sun Microsystems Inc.'s StarOffice and IBM Corp.'s Workplace. ODF is a rival to Office Open XML. If ECMA approves the Office Open XML format, used by Microsoft in its forthcoming Office 2007 software suite, the Danish ministries could use that instead. The French government is conducting a public inquiry into how to make its computer systems interoperable, but has reached no conclusions yet. However, in a report commissioned by the prime minister, National Assembly Deputy Bernard Carayon called for a law making it compulsory for French government departments to use ODF when they create or distribute documents. He suggested that France ask its European partners to do likewise when exchanging documents at a European level. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO)Â approved the ODF standard in May, but the Office Open XML specification is still some way off that status. Ecma's General Assembly will vote on the text during its meeting on Dec. 7 and Dec. 8. It cannot amend the text, only accept or reject it. If the final draft of the Office Open XML specification wins the assembly's approval, it will become an Ecma standard, and go on to ISO for fast-track approval, which can take six months to nine months. ISO may request amendments to the standard before voting to approve it. Both Ecma and ISO are based in Switzerland. Before submitting the text to the general assembly, Ecma's Technical Committee 45 will publishÂ the final draft on the standards body's Web site. That could happen as early as Monday, according to Ecma employee Isabelle Walch, and another source with knowledge of the process. The publication of the draft will give software developers a chance to make their applications compatible with the final version of Microsoft's Office 2007 document format ahead of the application suite's launch to business users at the end of this year. Technical Committee 45 has held six meetings to discuss the Office Open XML specification since beginning work on it last December. At the most recent meeting held in Trondheim, Norway, from Sept. 26 to Sept. 28, participants discussed numerical data precision, a mechanism for describing application characteristics, and extending spreadsheet capacity before agreeing the final draft, committee member Tom Ngo wrote in a report of the meeting. Ngo is chief technology officer of NextPage Inc. The meeting is chaired by two representatives from Microsoft, while other committee members represent the British Library, the U.S. Library of Congress, and companies including Apple Computer Inc., Intel Corp., Novell Inc. and Toshiba Corp.ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
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Standards vote could boost its Office document format in high-stakes race for desktop prominence.
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The Open Document Format saw a marked uptick in use last year across the globe, according to the ODF Alliance&#39;s 2007 report.Twelve countries and six regional governments have adopted &quot;pro-ODF policies,&quot; according to the group, composed of companies and organizations that advocate for the format. The latest countries are the Netherlands and South Africa, which require government agencies to use the format. Also, more than 40 applications now support ODF, and the Alliance&#39;s membership ranks are set to rise above 500, according to the report.&quot;Considering where we started when we launched the alliance back in 2006, the developments in 2007 are amazing in terms of the progress that has been made,&quot; said Marino Marcich, managing director of the group.&quot;It&#39;s one thing to recognize ODF as a matter of policy in an enterprise architecture framework and another to mandate its use,&quot; he added. &quot;Proprietary formats in the public sphere are going out of style and becoming unacceptable globally.&quot;The ODF Alliance&#39;s report marks another chapter in the long-brewing debate over Microsoft&#39;s Office Open XML document format and ODF, which is supported by the likes of Sun Microsystems&#39; StarOffice application suite and Google&#39;s hosted productivity software.OOXML is the native file format in Microsoft Office 2007, and&#160;Microsoft is attempting to get it recognized as a standard. ODF advocates have lambasted OOXML, calling it far too proprietary to warrant such a stamp of approval.Marcich echoed that charge. &quot;Microsoft certainly has the right to advance its proprietary format,&quot; he said. &quot;What it doesn&#39;t have the right to do is call OOXML open and interoperable. ... We&#39;d love it if Microsoft supported ODF in its products natively.&quot;Despite the prevalence of Office software, ODF nonetheless has a chance to thrive, Marcich argued.Today, he noted, Microsoft&#39;s&#160;DOC format, not OOXML, is still dominant. &quot;If the question is &#39;what is the future,&#39; clearly ODF has the lead right now,&quot; he said.OOXML cannot supplant&#160;DOC until the majority of organizations and users upgrade to Office 2007, he noted, a process that will not occur imminently.&quot;We have a window here where governments have time to make a decision as to upgrading,&quot; he said. &quot;I think 2008 will be a critical year as to which format will emerge as the format of the future.&quot;Another ODF advocate, Andy Updegrove, also expressed pleasure over ODF&#39;s adoption to date and optimism about its future. &quot;The tipping point has been passed. I don&#39;t think it will lead to a deluge, but progress will continue,&quot; said Updegrove, an attorney with Gesmer Updegrove in Boston. Updegrove serves as legal counsel to technology companies as well as standards bodies, including OASIS, and closely tracks the ODF-OOXML saga on his blog.Updegrove predicted that 2008 will be &quot;a tough year for Office,&quot; pointing beyond ODF and OOXML to broader trends in computer usage. &quot;The monolithic idea of an office suite is really eroding, and the younger you are, the more meaningless it becomes,&quot; he said.Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment Friday.Another win for ODF in the United States could come soon. New York officials are expected to decide which format the state will use in its systems. The public comment period for the matter had originally been scheduled to end on Dec. 28, but an updated document on the state&#39;s Web site indicates that the period has been extended to Jan. 18.
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Sun backs an EU standards push for interoperability between office software. Microsoft says it's already there.