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Open Stack: ISO Does The Unthinkable. How ISO approval of MSOffice-OOXML will break the Web

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:16:23 -0000

Comments:

A summary of my views on ISO approval of MSOffice-OOXML and the impact it will have on the futrue of the open web. posted by garyedwards

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

In August of 2007 we dropped ODF as the da Vinci target conversion format, and moved to the W3C's Compound Document Format (CDF) with an ePUB wrapper.

The reason for this move is that we could not establish a reasonable degree of interoperability with OpenOffice ODF unless Sun supported the five generic eXtensions to ODF needed to hit the high fidelity conversion the da Vinci process is capable of.

Since da Vinci is a clone of the MSOffice OOXML compatibility Kit, we use the same internal conversion process where imbr (in-memory-binary-representation) is converted to another format: imbr <> OOXML or, imbr <> RTF.

While it's entirely compliant to eXtend ODF, without Sun's changes to OpenOffice ODF the application-platform-vendor independent interoperability end users expect would be meaningless.

The problem as we see it is this; it is impossible to do a high fidelity conversion between two application specific XML formats.

It is however quite possible to do a conversion between an application specific format and a generic (application-platform-vendor independent) format.

Tags: css davinci interoperability msoffice odf ooxml xaml xhtml

Posted by: garyedwards

OOXML: MSOffice Open XML - Where The Rubber Meets The Road | Matusow's Blog

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:06:22 -0000

Comments:

ISO NB's approved MS-OOXML not because it meets ISO Interoperability Requirements. It doesn't. OOXML doesn't even come close. They approved OOXML because it's the best deal they can get given the MSOffice predicament their governments are caught in.

Governments got the binary blueprints they have been insisting on, but didn't get the mapping of those binaries to OOXML.

Governemnts also took control of OOXML, with Patrick Durusau and the JTC-1 now in copmplete control of the specifications future. Sadly though, Durusau and company will not be able to make the interop changes they know are required by ISO and related World Trade Agreements. The OOXML charter prevents any changes that would degrade in any way compatibility with MSOffice! This charter lock was on full display in the Microsoft - Ecma response to Geneva BRM comment resolutions, with Microsoft refusing to address any comments that would alter compliance with MSOffice.

Durusau has always believed that a one to one mapping between OOXML and ODF is possible. Just prior to the Geneva BRM though, the EU DIN Workgroup released their preliminary report on harmonization, which they found to be a next to impossible task given the applicaiton specific nature of both ODF and OOXML.

The DIN Report no doubt left the mapping-harmonization crowd (lead by Durusau) with few choices other than to take control of OOXML and figure out the binary to OOXML mappings for themselves, wih the hope that somewhere down the road OpenOffice will provide OOXML documents. Meaning, governments are not looking at open standards for XML documents as much as they are looking to crack the economic hammer lock Microsoft has on the desktop.
posted by garyedwards

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

There can be no doubt that OOXML, as a standard, has severe flaws. It is incomplete, platform specific, application specific, full of contradictions, fails to adhere to existing standards, untestable, and presents a moving target for any IT worker. There is not an organization in existence, including Microsoft, that promises to actually implement the full standard. Much of this is due to the fact the final version doesn't actually exist on paper yet, but a large fraction is also do to the patchwork nature of the product.

The reason governments and companies wanted a 'office apps' standard in the first place was to release an avalanche of data from aging applications. OOXML shows every appearance of being created to prevent this escape, not enable it. The immaturity of the standard means that it remains a gamble to see if older documents will remain readable or not. The lack of testing means there is no way to determine what docs actually adhere to it or not. The ignoring of existing standards guarantees compatibility problems. All of these factors are handy for the owner of the biggest share of existing documents, as it forces users to continue to use only _their_ application or risk danger from every other quarter.

Tags: iso matusow msoffice ooxml open-standards

Posted by: garyedwards

Has Microsoft lost its way on desktop computing? | The Apple Core | ZDNet.com

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:08:38 -0000

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

OM MALIK: You outlined Microsoft’s software-plus-services strategy, but what I want to know about is the changing role of the desktop in this service’s future.

RAY OZZIE: I think the real question is (that) if you were going to design an OS today, what would it look like? The OS that we’re using today is kind of in the model of a ’70s or ’80s vintage workstation. It was designed for a LAN, it’s got this great display, and a mouse, and all this stuff, but it’s not inherently designed for the Internet. The Internet is this resource in the back end that you can design things to take advantage of. You can use it to synchronize stuff, and communicate stuff amongst these devices at the edge.

A student today or a web startup, they don’t actually start at the desktop. They start at the web, they start building web solutions, and immediately deploy that to a browser. So from that perspective, what programming models can I give these folks that they can extend that functionality out to the edge? In the cases where they want mobility, where they want a rich dynamic experience as a piece of their solution, how can I make it incremental for them to extend those things, as opposed to learning the desktop world from scratch?

Tags: msoffice ooxml saas soa xaml

Posted by: garyedwards

Some thoughts on OOXML | Larsblog

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 19:42:06 -0000

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

What is to be done?

ISO has in a sense put itself in an awkward position here by already approving the rival OpenDocument format as an ISO standard. This makes it harder to reject OOXML, and at the same time makes it difficult to approve OOXML, since it competes with an existing ISO standard. Generally, I'm unhappy with how closely these two standards are tied to existing software. What I would really have liked to see was for OpenDocument and OOXML both to be dropped, and the two communities to sit down and work out a common agreed format that is not tied to any existing software. The Chinese UOF format, for example, might have served as the starting point for this. ODA has also been suggested. Unfortunately, this requires a political will that does not seem to be present, and so this seems unlikely for now.

Tags: approval iso microsoft msoffice odf ooxml sgml

Posted by: garyedwards

garyedwards's Discussions at ZDNet.co.uk Community

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 23:54:28 -0000

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

garyedwards's Discussions

Breaking the Web

Talkback: Google: OOXML 'insufficient and unnecessary'

Tags: iso microsoft msoffice odf ooxml xaml

Posted by: garyedwards

Denmark: OOXML vote won't affect public sector. ODF is too costly! | InfoWorld

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 23:51:10 -0000

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

Lebech said Denmark considers OOXML an open standard, regardless whether it is approved by the ISO. "It would be impossible for us to use only ISO standards if we want to fulfill the goal of creating interoperability in the government sector," he said.

The Danish Parliament also mandated that public agencies consider the cost of using open formats. One of the main reasons OOXML was included is because Denmark is heavily dependent on document management systems that are integrated with Microsoft's Office products, Lebech said.

Denmark also found that requiring agencies to only use ODF would have been too expensive, mostly because of the cost of converting documents into ODF, Lebech said.

"We wouldn't have been able to only support ODF," Lebech said. "It wouldn't have been cost neutral."

Tags: brm denmark geneva iso msoffice odf ooxml opendocment openxml

Posted by: garyedwards

Antitrust: The EU Case Against Microsoft | Investingation, Court Proceedings, Decisions, Enforcment, Case Docuemnts

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 23:51:10 -0000

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

The web-pages referred to below provide information about the European Commission’s March 2004 Microsoft Decision, the Court of First Instance proceedings relating to that Decision, and its ongoing implementation.

Tags: anti-trust eu microsoft msoffice ooxml openxml

Posted by: garyedwards

Independent study advises IT planners to go OOXML

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 23:52:44 -0000

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

3.2.2.2. A pox on both your houses!

gary.edwards - 01/22/08

Hi Robert,

What you've posted are examples of MSOffice ”compatibility settings” used to establish backwards compatibility with older documents, and, for the conversion of alien file formats (such as various versions of WordPerfect .wpd). These compatibility settings are unspecified in that we know the syntax but have no idea of the semantics. And without the semantic description there is no way other developers can understand implementation. This of course guarantees an unacceptable breakdown of interoperability.

But i would be hesitant to make my stand of rejecting OOXML based on this issue. It turns out that there are upwards of 150 unspecified compatibility settings used by OpenOffice/StarOffice. These settings are not specified in ODF, but will nevertheless show up in OpenOffice ODF documents – similarly defying interoperability efforts!

Since the compatibility settings are not specified or even mentioned in the ODF 1.0 – ISO 26300 specification, we have to go to the OOo source code to discover where this stuff comes from. Check out lines 169-211. Here you will find interesting settings such as, “UseFormerLineSpacing, UseFormerObjectPositioning, and UseFormerTextWrapping”.

So what's going on here?

From: Bill Gates Sent: Saturday, December 5 1998 To: Bob Muglia, Jon DeVann, Steven Sinofsky Subject : Office rendering "One thing we have got to change in our strategy - allowing Office documents to be rendered very well by other peoples browsers is one of the most destructive things we could do to the company. We have to stop putting any effort into this and make sure that Office documents very well depends on PROPRIETARY IE capabilities. Anything else is suicide for our platform. This is a case where Office has to avoid doing something to destroy Windows. I would be glad to explain at a greater length. Likewise this love of DAV in Office/Exchange is a huge problem. I would also like to make sure people understand this as well." Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Tags: anti-trust browser-wars gates msoffice netscape ooxml w3c

Posted by: garyedwards

Adobe's Latest Acquisition Creates Buzz Around Office Docs - Flock

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 22:52:25 -0000

Comments:

For a Web 2.0 application, Buzzword is very slick. It's more sophisticated and feature rich than Glide Writer, which is also written on Adobe Flex. Glide however offers an incredible array of portable office 2.0 features. It's the whole enchilada. And, Glide runs on iPhone!

Another interesting plus for Glide is that Google uses Glide Presentations for their on line PowerPoint alternative. Which is to say, Google is likely to purchase Glide while Adobe tries to build on Buzzword.

One of the disturbing things for me is that Buzzword uses a proprietary file format! In the future they will provide conversion to ODF, but that will probably be based on the OpenOffice conversion engine. Which everyone in the Web 2.0, Office 2.0, enterprise 2.0 space uses. Including Google.

The thing is, the OpenOffice conversion engine lacks the conversion fidelity to crack into existing MSOffice bound business processes.

Because they can't crack into these existing MSOffice bound business processes, the entire Office 2.0 sector is at risk. All it takes is a competing entry from Microsoft, and the entire sector will ge twiped out by the superior interoperability - integration advantage to the MSOffice - Outlook desktop that Microsoft owns and carefully guards.

Oh wait. That just happened today with the announcement of MSOffice Live! Suspiciously timed to take the oxygen out of Adobe's announcement too.

~ge~

posted by garyedwards

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

Adobe's foray into online productivity is unlikely to keep Microsoft's Steve Ballmer awake at night. But document sharing and collaboration features are central to Google's web-based office suite.

Tags: interoperability msoffice msoffice-live office20

Posted by: garyedwards

Microsoft: the cloud as feature - Rough Type

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 20:57:58 -0000

Comments:

Here we go. The final piece to the MS Stack puzzle falls into place. Nick Carr provides excellent commentary and analysis. As usual.
posted by garyedwards

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

In the short term and even medium term, it is very likely that mainstream business customers will be more comfortable viewing the cloud as an add-on to rather than a replacement for their traditional Office programs. The competitive battle, in other words, will be fought largely on Microsoft's turf, and on that turf a certain amount of messiness is both allowed and expected. "Google and other Office competitors will be breathing a sigh of relief this morning," writes Mike Arrington. If so, it's a sigh they may come to regret.

Tags: microsoft ms-stack msoffice msooxml ooxml

Posted by: garyedwards

Government - Focus for an OS Desktop

Tue, 29 May 2007 16:52:25 -0000

Comments:

Government, to include Federal, State and Local, should be the prime focus for increasing open source desktop market share by vendors such as Novell, Redhat and Ubuntu. Why, because government is required to procure all product and services through an open, transparent and competitive process. As of today, few if any government organizations have complied with this requirement when it comes to purchases of desktop operating systems or productivity tools. In fact, until just recently there have not been competitive alternatives, but now there are. posted by garyedwards
Government, to include Federal, State and Local, should be the prime focus for increasing open source desktop market share by vendors such as Novell, Redhat and Ubuntu. Why, because government is required to procure all product and services through an open, transparent and competitive process. As of today, few if any government organizations have complied with this requirement when it comes to purchases of desktop operating systems or productivity tools. In fact, until just recently there have not been competitive alternatives, but now there are. posted by garyedwards

Tags: davinci government msoffice odf oss procurement

Posted by: garyedwards

Q&A: Calif. CIO Steers Clear of Ideology on File Formats

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 11:26:18 -0000

Comments:

A mus tread. Carol Sliwa of ComputerWorld intervies Clark Kelso, California CIO. ODF is the main issue, with clark casting all his answers in the context of business decisions. Carol o fcourse is asking the best questions of any journalist alive.

Keep in mind that ComputerWorld and the Boston globe filed for the Freedom of Information Act to be invoked in Massachusetts. They got access to all the eMail, documnetation, and conferencing notes concerning ODF and Microsoft. Carol's interview with Louis Gutierrez last week was filled with the same hard questions Clark Kelso fielded so deftly.

The "committee" Clark Kelso has set up to look at these issues is headed by Bill Welty, the CIO of the California Air Resources Board. Bill is a long time opensource - Linux guy, but will be the firs tto admit that Microsoft is the only vendor providing a means of getting everything inot XML. And that's the heart of any SOA strategy, "First, get everything into XML".

With a 500 million MSOffice desktop bound business process headstart, Microsoft has the extreme advantage in this much needed migration to XML.

They now have their own proprietary application and platform bound version of XML; MOOXML (Microsoft OfficeOpenXML) heading for international standardization at ISO.

They now have their XML Hub in place; the Exchange4/SharePoint Hub. This is also an essential part of any SOA strategy. You've got to have an XML Hub where the XML information streams and service connection to legacy black box systems can be piped into, managed and resolved. The XML must also provide an end user interface to these information flows. One that converges and integrates information, documents, data, and workflows into an easy to manage and participate in interface. The E/S Hub excells at this because it covers the fundamentals of eMail, messaging, portal, calendar, scheduling, contact and project management, document resources, CMS, workgroup and workflow management, XML forms, data schemas, data binding and extraction. The "portal" element provides vertical market developers with an easy means for provisioning highly productive business processes designed to replace those bound to MSOffice desktops.

Micrsoft is ready to play XML and SOA. And do so without giving up their control of the documents or API. The cornerstone of the MS XML STack is that every applicaiton on the desktop, server, device or Web shares three common factors:
- MOOXML (Microsoft OfficeOpenXML)
- .NET 3.0 Components, Libraries and Data Schemas
- XAML - the XML presentation layer (GUI)
So, where are the ODF Hubs? And will those Hubs have the same level o integration to the MSOffice desktop as the MS XML Hub enjoys?

~ge~

posted by garyedwards

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

We’re trying to view it as a straight business decision. What are the costs associated with one approach over another? Does it serve all of our business needs? If it doesn’t serve a business need, how do we satisfy that business need? We’re trying to view this just as a plain-vanilla, nonpartisan, nonideological issue.

Tags: california iso microsoft mooxml msoffice odf ooxml opendocument openxml xml

Posted by: garyedwards

California may join rush of states toward ODF

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:28:27 -0000

Comments:

Good article about the opening salvo in what promises to be a long, hard fought war with Microsoft. Unlike what has happened in the EU and Massachusetts, this time our friends in Redmond are politically facing off on the home turf of their powerful enemies in Silicon Valley, which stretches from the south of market area (SOMA) all the way down the San Francisco peninsula to San Jose, arching around the entire Bay area.

If you thought it was raining dollars from Redmond in Massachusetts as the great monopolist moved to successfully shut down the entire Information Technology budget, including HomeLand Security projects, the battle of California promises to be the el nino of perfect storms. I'm confident though that California CIO Clark Kelso and five star brigadiere general Bill Welty will stand tall against the storm. I can hardly wait for the forces to move into place and the action begin. What a show this is going to be.

Meanwhile, what's at stake here is all the marbles of our digital future. Forcing Microsoft to accept and fully implement the OpenDcoument XML file format is something the great monopolist has shown they will fight to the bitter end. Brace yourselves!

posted by garyedwards

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

Like the other two measures, the bill in the California Assembly doesn't list any specific document formats that could be used. But as in Minnesota and Texas, the introduction of such a bill appears to be another potential win for backers of the Open Document Format (ODF) for Office Applications.

Tags: iso microsoft msoffice oasis odf ooxml opendocument openxml xml

Posted by: garyedwards

Most Business Tech Pros Wary About Web 2.0 Tools In Business - Technology News by InformationWeek

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:28:27 -0000

Comments:

Great coverage from InformationWeek about the emerging Enterprise 2.0 arena. Author Michael Hoover does not get too deep into the Information Processing Chain, as exampled by the integrated Vista Stack of desktop, server, device,Internet systems and services. But he provides a more than adequate framework for evaluating chain components.

As the ODF - OOXML battle contiues to expand, engulfing swallowing and swamping near everythign in it's path, the day is not too far off when the battle will move to the center of Enterprise 2.0 considerations. It has to. XML Hubs are how these converging technologies are going to be gathered, integrated and configured to impact rapidly changing business processes. There has to be a universal transport in these systems that all applications can work, and nothig matches the highly portable and interactive document/data capabilities of ODF and OOXML. They alone own the desktop prodcutivity environment migration to XML. And it will be through XML - RDF/XML that the Hubs finally integrate the flow of information between desktops, servers, devices and Internet systems.

~ge~

posted by garyedwards

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

How should an IT team start thinking about an Enterprise 2.0 strategy? One way is to carve it into two main areas. The first is Web-based information sharing--think business versions of Wikipedia, MySpace, and Flickr. A sizable minority of companies are finding effective business uses for blogs, wikis, syndicated feeds, pervasive search, social networking, collaborative content portals like SharePoint, and mashups that use easier-to-integrate APIs and fast-response development techniques such as Ajax. One example: Wikis, which let multiple people access and edit a document online, are widely used at 6% of companies in our survey and used effectively by a few employees at 25% of companies.

The second area is voice and messaging, where voice over IP, instant messaging, presence, videoconferencing, and unified communications can make it possible to connect people in more relevant ways. Unified communications entails the blending of voice calls, video, and messages, coupled with functionality like embedded click-to-call links in documents and contact lists and the ability to see if colleagues and partners are available to chat. It's widely used at 13% of companies surveyed and effectively by a few at 24%.

Tags: exchange iso microsoft msoffice oasis odf ooxml opendocument openxml sharepoint vista xml

Posted by: garyedwards

Microsoft Closer on \'Office Open\' Blessing

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:28:27 -0000

Comments:

Internet News is reporting that Ecma has submitted to the ISO/IEC JTC1 their repsonsess to the 20 "fast track" for Ecma 376 (OOXML) objections. Nothing but blue skies and steady breeze at their back for our friends at Redmond, according to Ecma's rubber stamper in chief, Jan van den Beld.

Once again there is that ever present drum beat from Microsoft that ODF can't handle MSOffice and legacy MSOffice features - including but not mentioned the conversion to XML of those infamous billions of binary documents:

"Microsoft has countered that the OOXML format is valuable because it is

closer to Office 2007 and is backwards-compatible with older versions of

Office. "Although both ODF and Open XML are document formats, they are

designed to address different needs in the marketplace," the company wrote

in an open letter published earlier this month."
Of course this "incompatibility"outcome was planned years ago. What else could we expect since Microsoft has steadfastedly refused to participate in the OASIS Open Office XML (ODF) effort, which began in 2002 with Microsoft joining the group, but noticeably choosing to observe without contribution or participation.
So it is Microsoft who is a fault for any finding of ODF - MSOffice incompatibility, not the OASIS ODF Technical Committee or ODF community of vendors, developers and users.
Our friends in Redmond planned and plotted for this dilemma. Their intentions are to control completely the migration of information and information processes from legacy binary file formats to their own version of XML.
One thing many people miss about this is that Microsoft mus tmove to XML fiel formats no matter what. The Internet has usshered in a new age of collaborative computing based on universal access, connectivity and exchange. It's a world driven by HTML, XML and RDF/XML. Microsoft either embraces this juggernaut, or gets left in the dust.
Interestingly, i for one believe that Microsoft has the best next generation Internet - XML stategey out there. There's a lot of low level wiki - writely collaobration out there. And of course Lotus Notes has reigned for years, alone and unchallenged in the client/server area of intelligent documents, forms, managed workflows, scripted routing, and collaborative computing. Microsoft's extraordinary opportunity is to leverage their desktop MSOffic emonopoly of over 500 million users into the emerging arena of highly interoperable "Information Processing Chains".
Because of Redmond's iron fisted monopolist control over MSOffice desktop productivity environment's, they own entirely the Information Processing Chain opportunity. And the Vista Chain (Stack) is a wonder to behold.
The core of the Vista Chain is the OOXML document/data transport connection between MSOffice and the Exchange/SharePoint/Groove Hub. IE and Vista augment this chain in that they are OOXML fluent and OOXML enabling.
The idea here is for Microsoft to migrate to the E/S XML HUB both the MSOffice bound binary documents and the volumes of critical day to day MSOffice bound business processes, line of business integrated apps, and scores of assistive technology type add-ons. Microsoft has to ge this job done before others swoop in and do it for them. Others would be SaaS, SOA, and a host of Enterprise 2.0 collaborative computing initiatives.
The Vista Chain is based on the portable XML document/data transport, OOXML; and,the Vista .NET 3.0 framework. Legacy Win 32 APi application and platform dependencies that bind those billions of binary documents to MSOffice, are replaced in OOXML by bindings to the Vista .NET 3.0 dependencies. From the E/S Hub, it's easy for end users to create data and workflow bindings involving MS SQL Server transaction and data processing backends. Same with MS Live, Office Communicator, Active Directory, MS ERP, MS CRM, and MS Money.
The Vista Chain is good stuff. Moving those MSOffic ebound business processes to the E/S XML Hub is not all that difficult, and the reward is a guaranteed leap in porductivity. A giant leap.
Which brings us back to the challenge ODF faces. Will there be an ODF Chain? Not if users and providers are unable to perfectly convert those MSOffice bound billions of billions fo binary documents and MSOffice bound business processes to ODF.
The challenge for ODF is in doing exactly what OOXML does. The end users migration to XML and the XML Hubs is entirely dependent on three successive stages. All of which OOXML can currently master:
1. Perfect Conversion Fidelity :: of billions of binary documents to XML (ODF - OOXXML)
2. Perfect Round Trip Fidelity :: MSOffic ebound business processes Workgroup - WorkFlow
3. Application Interoperability :: between all processing chain application participants, even as they span desktop, server, device and Enterprise 2.0 serivces and systems.
The OpenDocument Foundation believes that our ODF 1.2 daVinci plugin for MSOffice will prove conclussively that ODF can handle stages 1 and 2 every bit as well as OOXML. In fact, daVinci can do much better than OOXML in that other ODF 1.2 ready applications will be able to directly participate for the first time ever. The Foundation also has two other products in the works to augment the daVinci miracle; the portable InfoSet Engine and APi, and the Interop Wizard for OpenOffice.

When the OASIS ODF Metadata RDF/XML Sub Committee sends the ODF 1.2 proposal to the mainline TC for consideration, we will release the daVinci prototype to Stephen O'Grady of Redmonk for comparative testing against the other available plugins. At the end of the day though, the cahllenge for daVinci will be in proving conclussively that ODF is able, sufficient and ready to master the three stages of migration, and do so every bit as well as OOXML.

posted by garyedwards

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

Opponents to OOXML, which include IBM (Quote) and the Open Document Foundation, have argued that Microsoft's specifications are unwieldy and that the standard application is redundant with the Open Document Format (ODF), which already exists.

Microsoft has countered that the OOXML format is valuable because it is closer to Office 2007 and is backwards-compatible with older versions of Office. "Although both ODF and Open XML are document formats, they are designed to address different needs in the marketplace," the company wrote in an open letter published earlier this month.

Tags: ecma exchange iso microsoft msoffice oasis odf ooxml opendocument openxml sharepoint vista xml

Posted by: garyedwards

PlexNex: HUMOR: Interoperability, Choice and Open XML

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:28:27 -0000

Comments:

Sam really nailsit with this satirical commentary on the spliny whiny letter Microsoft wrote begging the world to reconsider the proprietary application and platform bound Microsoft Office Open XML file format as an international standard for office productivity suites.
posted by garyedwards

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

It is important to recognize that ODF and Open XML were created with very different design goals and that they are only two of many document format standards in use today, each of which has characteristics that are attractive to different users in different scenarios

reflects the functionality in those products.

Tags: iso microsoft msoffice oasis odf ooxml opendocument openxml xml

Posted by: garyedwards

Three Stages of XML Migration: The OpenDocument Challenge

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:28:27 -0000

Comments:

Eventually i suspect the truth will come out concerning ODF and the events in Massachusetts. Migration is difficult and our friends in Redmond are not about to lend a hand. The problem is the starting point, the MSOffice desktop productivity environment. A starting point owned and controlled entirely by Microsoft. The challenge is to get from the overwhelming dominance of proprietary Microsoft binary documents and into an open XML universal file format that any application, running on any platform can interactively read, render and write to.

Microsoft has decided to keep secret the blueprint to these billions of binary documents, reserving exclusively for themselves the right to convert then to XML. Of course, the only version of XML Microsoft will convert them to is the wholly owned and controlled OOXML file format.

Microsoft refuses to cooperate in any way with the conversion of these legacy binary documents to the only truly open XML universal file format, OASIS OpenDocument. Which leaves the world with a near insolvable problem; how to get from where we are today, with the boot of a ruthless monopolist on the neck of our information and information processes, to where we really desire to be - with our digital civilization in the hands of open standards, and out of the control of proprietary applications and platform vendors.

This document describes what the OpenDocument Foundation learned in Massachusetts about the challenge of migrating to ODF.

posted by garyedwards

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

"Open document formats: I get it! But how do I get there? Discuss."

Tags: iso microsoft msoffice oasis odf ooxml opendocument openxml xml

Posted by: garyedwards

Opportunity Knocks

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:28:26 -0000

Comments:

Count on Walt Hucks to nail it every time. Once again he comes through with another gem, commenting on the Mary Jo Foley interview with the slippery Tom Robertson, General Manager of laugh out loud "Interoperabiltiy and Standards" for Microsoft. I kid you not.

Microsoft describes their highly proprietary and self serving implementation of interoperbiltiy as, "Interoperability by design". Which means, only those applications, systems and services designed by Microsoft will have the needed interoperability consumers must have to make sense of the many volumes of information and information processes that drive critical day to day workflows.

Now with Ecma 376, we have a clear example of Microsoft "Standards by Design". Very sad, but it's our lot in life.

Thanks Walt, once again a great commentary,
~ge~

posted by garyedwards

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

With the news that another state–California–is considering adopting open standard XML-based file formats for office documents (which could be interpreted to mandate ODF), and the continued march of governments around the world to ODF (ISO/IEC 26300:2006), their poorly-done translator is not likely to meet the standard. For one thing, it “bolts” ODF capability on, rather than building it in as a fully-native peer format. It also uses XSLT to attempt the translation when OOXML’s design is not fully usable with XSLT. I cannot see how they could have created a more error-prone method to do the conversions. This could potentially cause Microsoft’s office applications suite to be expelled from government agencies and their employees and contractors.

Tags: iso microsoft msoffice oasis odf ooxml opendocument openxml xml

Posted by: garyedwards

Vista and Office 2007 spin tales from the Underground | Channel Register

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:28:26 -0000

Comments:

Excellent article about Vista and MSOffice "System" 2007 as development platforms. The author provides one of the better explanations of how MSOffice 2007 and SharePoint "Hub" are connected and joined at the hip. Hey, i invented tha tterm "Hub"! Or so i thought. I guess some things are just obvious.

My use of the term "Hub" to describe an XML turnstile where backend information meges with portal interfaces, email, messaging, and document storage/collaboration goes back to the 2003 "Sales and Inventory" management system prototype we built for Comcast. Desktops connect to the hub through XML documents, XForms and Jabber XMPP data binding, and browsers. Great stuff - the way SOA should be done!

posted by garyedwards

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

Firstly it is a back end to what most people would traditionally think of as "Microsoft Office", i.e. the suite of desktop tools (Word, PowerPoint, Excel and so on). In this respect, it acts as a hub for collaboration, document storage/sharing, search and a range of other functions. However, SharePoint can also be used independently of the Office desktop components as a very respectable and capable portal environment for serving up either native .Net or composite applications to users through a browser.

Tags: exchange iso microsoft msoffice oasis odf ooxml opendocument openxml sharepoint vista xml

Posted by: garyedwards

ODF versus OOXML: Don't forget about HTML! - O'Reilly XML Blog

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:28:26 -0000

Comments:

Famed Microsoft WikiPedia editor Rick Jellife takes on the HTML-CSS proposal put forth by Opera Browser CTO Håkon Wium Lie’s in his recent CNET column.

Rick claims that the Opera proposal is "solid in its ultimate premise .... that inspite of .. all the talk about ODF and OOXML, it is important not to lose track of HTML’s potential and actual suitability for much document interchange.

Good discussion except that MS Rick can't help himself when it comes to the tired moral equivocation argument that the world can and should accept and use two ISO/IEC desktop productivity environment file format standards, ODF and OOXML. Once again he puts forward the claim that ODF is OPenOffice specific and OOXML is MSOffice specific - each having it's place and value as an international standard.

Are we standardizing applications here? I thought it was about creating a universal XML file format that all application can use:: One file format for OpenOffice, MSOffice, KOffice, Writer, WordPerfect Office, Novell Office, GNOME Office, and even the Flash-Apollo based " Virtual Ubiquity " from Rick Treitman.

ODF does need to provide the marketplace with at least three profiles; desktop productivity environments, server side portal publication-content-archive management systems, and devices. This would greatly improve interoperability as ODF documents transition across desktops, servers, devices and Internet information domains. It would also help the implementation of ODF by SOA, SaaS and Web 2.0 systems.

But having two file formats that irreconcilably incompatible servicing the exact same market categories? Doesn't make sense. And can only end in massive end user confusion where the application with dominant marketshare end up crushing any and all competitive alternatives.

Having both ODF and OOXML as ISO/IEC standards gets us no where. The world will never realize the promise of XML universal transformation ecause OOXML will triumph because of the massive monopoly base of desktops that Micorosoft refuses to enable ODF with.

The migration to ODF is difficult. In fact, it can't be done without the use of unique ODf Plugins for MSOffice that can achieve perfect conversion fidelity with respect to the billion of binary documents under girding the world's commercial, legal, scienfic, educational, literary, entertaining, publishing, and organizational activities.

I wonder. Rick claims that ODF can't do everything MSOffice and the legacy of billions of bianry documents need. The offical Microsoft talking point is that "because ODF was designed for OpenOffice, it is insufficient, inadequate and unable to handle the feature rich MSOffice needs. What would Rick think if we proved to him that the talking points are wrong? Dead Wrong! That ODF is indeed more than able to handle anything and everything MSOffice and the billions of binaries can throw at it.

If ODF proves to be able, do we still need two ISO/IEC standards for the same thing?

My guess is that MS Rick and his masters in Redmond will never concede that ODF can do it all. Which means, the ODF 1.2 version of daVinci must make the case in trenches of California. See you in Sacramento Rick!
posted by garyedwards

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

But Lie is right, I think, to be alarmed by the prospect that if OOXMLfails MS will revert away from open formats. I don’t see them adopting ODF as the default format for general sale. for a start, current ODF simply does not have matching capabilities. This issue of fit is strong enough that we don’t even need to get to the issue of control. We have this nice little window now where MS is inclined to open up its formats, something that the document processing community has been pleading for for years. The ODF sideshow runs the risk of screwing this up; I’ve said it before, but I say it again: being pro-ODF does not mean you have have to be anti-OOXML. ODF has not been designed to be a satisfactory dump format for MS Office; OOXMLhas not been designed to be a suitable format for Sun’s Star Office or Open Office or IBM’s products. HTML is the format ｏｆ choice for interchange of simple documents; ODF will evolve to be the format of choice for more complicated documents; OOXML is the format of choice for full-fidelity dumps from MS Office; PDF is the format of choice for non-editable page-faithful documents; all of them are good candidates for standardization, all have overlap but are worthwhile to have as cards in the deck of standards. But systems for custom markup trumps all.

Tags: iso microsoft msoffice oasis odf ooxml opendocument openxml xml

Posted by: garyedwards