Est. 2min 03-04-2008 (updated: 28-05-2012 ) microsoft.jpg Euractiv is part of the Trust Project >>> Languages: Français | DeutschPrint Email Facebook X LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram The Office Open XML code used by Microsoft to enable content exchange among different software – thus facilitating the storage and future use of documents – has become an international standard after months of controversial negotiations. Microsoft was successful in persuading a number of states which voted against OOXML in September, including the UK, France, Denmark and Ireland, to change their position. In the final and decisive appeal at the end of March, these countries either supported the standard or abstained, allowing it to go through. Now OOXML has the ISO 29500 label, making it “a standard for word-processing documents, presentations and spreadsheets that is intended to be implemented by multiple applications on multiple platforms,” the ISO explained. Nevertheless, to get the green light the Redmond company has been forced to take into account several significant concerns raised by ISO members which, if fully applied, bring significant changes to the current OOXML. Microsoft claims that the new standard will make life easier for private users and public administrations, enabling them to save and store all their documentation with guaranteed long-term access, even with newly developed software. This position is countered by supporters of open source and open standards, who argue that applications provided in OOXML are protected by copyright and could not be implemented in the future by other software developers. They instead support ODF, an open source application which is currently less interoperable with other applications than OOXML, but supposedly has a greater capacity due to its open format and constant innovations. The concerns of the open source community are shared by the European Commission. Last January, it opened a formal investigation to assess whether “Office Open XML, as implemented in Office, is sufficiently interoperable with competitors’ products”. Read more with Euractiv EU pushes forward mobile TV ahead of Euro CupFootball fans everywhere may discover a new way to enjoy the next European Championships just by looking at the screen of their own mobile phones. The European Commission hopes that mobile television will finally take off in Europe, driven by the summer's sport, but uncertainty still dominates. Positions Tom Robertson, general manager of interoperability and standards at Microsoft, commented: "With 86 percent of voting national bodies supporting ratification, there is overwhelming support for Open XML. This outcome is a clear win for the customers, technology providers and governments that want to choose the format that best meets their needs and have a voice in the evolution of this widely adopted standard". Marino Marcich, managing director of the ODF Alliance, the competitor of OOXML, reacted: "The vote shined a spotlight on OOXML that will not dim. Only in response to growing public pressure has Microsoft promised to make changes to OOXML, and, to be sure, similar promises have been made on numerous occasions. To avoid any questions concerning the legitimacy of the vote, which included many documented irregularities, Microsoft needs to ensure that these promises made to national standards bodies are actually delivered". Istvan Sebestyen, secretary general of ECMA International, the private US standardisation body, echoed Microsoft's satisfaction. "ISO approval of this global standard represents an important milestone in our goal to support access to billions of existing binary documents, as well as to enable interoperability across office productivity applications and with line-of-business systems". Benjamin Henrion, initiator of the 'NO OOXML' campaign, wryly commented: "Committee stuffing is a standard practice for Microsoft. Microsoft raped ISO with their office file formats, leaving the organisation in limbo. The whole campaign against the format has raised an army of people, who are furious about the dirty tactics used by Microsoft to get the broken standard through ISO". Graham Taylor, the chief executive of OpenForum Europe, said: "The result could well prove a hollow victory for Microsoft. It comes at a considerable cost to the reputations of Microsoft, ECMA and the International Standards Organisation (ISO). Microsoft will experience ever increasing and costly outspoken grass roots opposition across the world". Jan van den Beld of the industry alliance Comptia commented: "The vote represents a tremendous victory for choice. With ISO approval of OOXML, governments, businesses, consumers and the ICT industry now have a powerful, competitive alternative international standard that will allow products based on it to better interoperate with other document products, while also benefiting from new innovation stemming from the many independent software developers who have or will choose OOXML." Philippe Aigrain, one of the European gurus in the field, commented in his blog: "The adoption of OOXML as a standard will not stop the growing adoption of OpenDocument office suites. It will just slow it down. Just enough to pump a few tens of billions of euros from the pockets of the planet citizens into the profits of one company." BackgroundOffice Open XML (OOXML) was recognised as a standard by the US standardisation association ECMA in December 2006, marking a first step towards global recognition provided by the Geneva-based International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO). Despite the strong lobbying carried out by Microsoft, OOXML was nevertheless rejected in September 2007 by the ISO committee charged with the issue and composed of national bodies dealing with standardisation. OOXML's competitor, ODF (Open Document Format), supported among others by IBM and Google, was recognised as an ISO standard in December 2006. OOXML and ODF are languages used to store and read documents. They allow a file to be used by software different from the one with which it was produced. Thus they are fundamental to the creation and handing down of documentation, one of the key procedures in human cultural history. Further ReadingEuropean Union European Commission:Investigation over OOXML(14 January 2008) [FR] [FR] [DE] International Organisations International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO):Decision over OOXML(2 April 2008) ECMA (US private standardisation body):Press release on ISO's decision(1 April 2008) Business & Industry Microsoft:Press release on ISO's decision(1 April 2008) Microsoft:OOXML factsheets ODF Alliance:Press release on ISO's decision(2 April 2008)
