| Mass. surrenders to Microsoft's Open XML push |
Aug. 02, 2007
The only thing that's surprising today, Aug. 2, is that the Chicago Cubs are leading, albeit by mere percentage points, the National League Central. In Massachusetts, however, the Red Sox continue to lead the American League East and the state government has rolled over for Microsoft's so-called standard: Open XML.
Technically, all that's happened is that the commonwealth of Massachusetts added Microsoft's Open XML format, AKA Ecma-376, to its list of approved standards in a draft of the Massachusetts ETRM (Enterprise Technical Reference Model), an architectural framework used to identify the standards, specifications and technologies that support Massachusetts' computing environment. To no one's surprise, when the final version of the latest update to the ETRM appeared on Aug. 1, Open XML was officially included.
Some 460 individuals and organizations submitted comments on the public review draft, many of which questioned the wisdom of including Open XML as an acceptable document format for office applications along with ODF (Open Document Format). It was all for naught.
As Andrew "Andy" Updegrove, a partner with Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a Boston law firm, and the editor of ConsortiumInfo.org, wrote in his latest ConsortiumInfo blog, Massachusetts—or, more properly, a small number of courageous public servants—did something important two years ago when they took a stand for open formats. It is regrettable that their successors have seen fit to abandon that principled stance, even to the expedient extent of waiting a short while longer to see whether Microsoft's OOXML formats will be found to be sufficient or lacking under the microscope of the global standards adoption process."
To continue reading this article by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols at eWEEK.com, go here.
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