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Plan B: The NO ViSTA Mandates, and the failure of ISO/IEC

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:11:52 -0000

Comments:

Okay. I've combined my three comments into a single page. Sadly Diigo does not offer spell checking. My apologies to all. Hoepfully this will be a better read.
posted by garyedwards

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

Plan B: The "NO ViSTA" Mandates:

the failure of Anti Trust Laws and International Trade Agreements to Stop The Great Monopolist, Microsoft

A series of surprising government mandate announcements rolled out in the immediate aftermath of the ISO/IEC decision to fast track Ecma 376 otherwise known as Microsoft Office Open XML (MOOX). The three articles commented on here are all from Information Week, who has done yeoman work concerning the OpenDocument - MOOX controversy that has so upset Microsoft. Now the mighty monopolist can taste victory, with fast track approval of MOOX certain, and ISO/IEC in the bag. Incredibly the company that escaped a Court ordered death sentence by purchasing what amounts to a presidential pardon. They even avoided the stink of their own lobbyist and henchman Jack Abramoff, and his motley crew of Ralph Reed and Grover Nyquist operatives. Now they are well on their way towards purchasing an International Standard. So much for Plan A. Time for Plan B, the "NO ViSTA" mandate.

Tags: government iso microsoft odf ooxml vista 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

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

Microsoft Hit By U.S. DOT Ban On Windows Vista, Explorer 7, and Office 2007 - Technology News by InformationWeek

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:07:04 -0000

Comments:

Whoa, those government desktops add up quickly. This Vista ban will immediately effect over 50,000 desktops, with tens of thousands more possibly impacted by the IE 7.0 ban. The MS Exchange/SharePoint Hub juggernaut is based on IE 7.0, which is not available for Windows 2000 - MSOffice 2000 desktops.

Lack of Vista Stack compatibility with non Microsoft application is given as the reason for the ban. But notice the "alternatives" to Vista mentioned; Novel SuSE and Apple Mac. What kind of interop - compatibility do they offer? My guess is ZERO!

The reality is that the DOT is trapped. My advice would be stay exactly where they are, keeping the current MSOffice desktop installs running. Then, install the Foundation's daVinci ODF plugin for MSOffice.

This will insure that Windows OS and MSOffice bound business processes can continue to function without disruption. Win32 APi based applications like those mentioned in the article can continue. Critical day to day business processes, workgroup and workflow related activities can continue without disruption or costly re engineering demanded by a cross platform port.

What daVinci doe sdo is move the iron triangle that binds Windows-MSOffice applications to business processes and documents, to an ODF footing. Once on a ODF footing, the government can push forward with the same kind of workgroup - workflow - intelligent docuemnt - collaborative computing advnaces that the Vista Stack was designed to deliver. Only this push will involve the highly competitive "the customer is sovereign" environment of ODF ready desktop, server, device and Web 2.0 systems. End of Redmond lock-in. End of the costly iron triangle and the force march upgrade treadmill that so enriches Microsoft.

So what's not to like? We can do this.
~ge~

The Three Stages of Migration to XML :: the OpenDocument Challenge

posted by garyedwards

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

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Microsoft Hit By U.S. DOT Ban On Windows Vista, Explorer 7, and Office 2007

Tens of thousands of federal workers are prohibited from upgrading to the latest versions, according to memos seen by InformationWeek.

By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek

March 2, 2007 12:00 PM

Citing concerns over cost and compatibility, the top technology official at the federal Department of Transportation has placed a moratorium on all in-house computer upgrades to Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system, as well as Internet Explorer 7 and Office 2007, according to a memo obtained Friday by InformationWeek.

In a memo to his staff, the DOT's CIO Daniel Mintz says he has placed "an indefinite moratorium" on the upgrades as "there appears to be no compelling technical or business case for upgrading to these new Microsoft software products. Furthermore, there appears to be specific reasons not to upgrade."

Among the concerns cited by Mintz are compatibility with software applications currently in use at the department, the cost of an upgrade, and DOT's move to a new headquarters in Washington later this year. "Microsoft Vista, Office 2007, and Internet Explorer [7] may be acquired for testing purposes only, though only on approval by the DOT chief information officer," Mintz writes.

The memo is dated Jan. 19. In an interview Friday, DOT chief technology officer Tim Schmidt confirmed that the ban is still in effect. "We're analyzing different client software options and also integration issues," says Schmidt. Among the options the Transportation Department is weighing as a possible alternative or complement to Windows Vista are Novell's Suse Linux and, for a limited group of users, Apple's Macintosh hardware and software, he says.

Schmidt says the Transportation Department hasn't ruled out upgrading its computers to Windows Vista if all of its concerns about the new operating system -- the business version of which was launched late last year -- can be resolved. "We have more confidence in Microsoft than we would have 10 years ago," says Schmidt. "But it always makes sense to look at the security implications, the value back to the customer, and those kind of issues."

The DOT's ban on Vista, Internet Explorer 7, and Office 2007 applies to 15,000 computer users at DOT proper who are currently running the Windows XP Professional operating system. The memo indicates that a similar ban is in effect at the Federal Aviation Administration, which has 45,000 desktop users.

Compatibility with existing applications appears to be the Transportation Department's major concern. According to a separate memo, a number of key software applications and utilities in use in various branches of the department aren't Vista compatible. Among them are Aspen 2.8.1, ISS 2.11, ProVu 3.1.1, and Capri 6.5, according to a memo issued by staffers at the DOT's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Any prolonged ban on new Microsoft technologies by the federal government could have a significant impact on the software maker's bottom line, as Microsoft sells millions of dollars in software to the feds annually.

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Tags: exchange/sharepoint government msoffice odf opendocument standards vista vistachain vistastack

Posted by: garyedwards