[odf-discuss] Ecma Approves Office Open XML

[Ian Lynch]

On Fri, 2006-12-08 at 15:26 -0800, Christian Einfeldt wrote:
> 
> On 12/8/06, Pete Harlow <peter.harlow at gmail.com> wrote:
>         Ecma International Approves Office Open XML as Worldwide
>         Industry Standard.
>         
>         http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/12-07-2006/0004487682&EDATE=
> 
> Will someone please give me a reason to be hopeful and not blow my
> brains out over this news? 

Lock-in to vista through information right management is a better
candidate :-)

>  I'm being facetious, of course, but geez, I just didn't need bad news
> like this.  I sometimes feel that O'Brien, the bad guy in George
> Orwell's "1984" novel was correct when he said that, "The future is a
> boot stepping on a human face forever." 
> 
> To sort of answer my own question, of course ODF is probably way ahead
> of MOOX in adoption.

I think we have to accept that the number of MOOX users will increase
fairly rapidly and probably to as many or more ODF users in the short
term but that was always likely.

>   And of course GNU/Linux continues to progress steadily.  The Zune is
> just not selling.  The X-box is only barely profitable.  Microsoft
> continues to endure on the basis of selling software as a product
> (Windows and Office) and their entire empire is built on a business
> model which will be disrupted by SaaS.  And yet the borg just has so
> much money. 

So more to lose :-)

> And here's what scares me the most:  The Bill & Melinda Gates
> Foundation (BMGF).  BMGF was just a genius stroke on the part of the
> Borg.  1)  it's a huge PR score.  2)  It allows the Borg to dump
> useless licenses on the developing world, thereby 3) getting a tax
> break in the USA, at least, 4) thereby increasing its profitability,
> 5) and occupying space at the low end of the market, where the Borg
> was most vulnerable and FOSS was strongest. 
> 
> Sometimes the future just looks so dark to me.  Will someone please
> give me some hope?

My recent dealings with the ODA indicate the following

ECMA approval was expected. ECMA is not much use on its own but is a
stepping stone to ISO. ISO is important because governments generally
have policies to adopt ISO standards where they exist.

To become an ISO standard the national standards bodies have to agree so
there is a need for activists to lobby their national standards bodies
to point out the problems with MOOX as an ISO standard

These objections can be on two main grounds

Technical specs - which could delay things but would probably eventually
get fixed.
Compliance with the criteria for ISO standards.

The latter is not so easy to fix and the ODA companies and organisations
are likely to be conscientious in highlighting all the problems.

So, MOOX shouldn't get an easy ride to ISO and there is a fair chance
that it will never ever get ISO approval which makes it almost
untouchable by many governments. Even if it does get it, ODF is still
there and backed by a lot of interests and an increasing take up of Open
Source apps particularly in the less rich nations with all probability
in the longer term good quality free plug-ins to MSO. Compare this to 5
years ago - which position do you think MS would rather have? From their
point of view its damage limitation which still has the potential to be
from their point of view a catastrophe. For them, the best case scenario
is still a lot worse than it was 5 years ago so we are winning, just
depends on by how much.

Ian

-- 
www.theINGOTS.org
www.schoolforge.org.uk
www.opendocumentfellowship.org