As expected, Microsoft is lobbying hard to turn the NO countries into a YES. An article in the Filipino Inquirer.net is just there to remember us that Microsoft has their lobbying agenda well ready, and that the war is carefully planned:
Microsoft reiterates need for ‘open standards,’ openXML
By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 12:05pm (Mla time) 01/08/2008MANILA, Philippines — Microsoft is singing a different tune these days, and it sounds more like a familiar refrain from the open source community.
With the impending Geneva vote to make open Extensive Markup Language (openXML) a “global standard,” Microsoft has been reiterating its increasing support for the open source community, and its mission to support open standards in the name of interoperability.
Member organizations of the International Standards Organization (ISO) are set to meet next month in Geneva for a “ballot resolution meeting” that intends to resolve “comments” from member countries who voted against making openXML a global standard.
Microsoft’s OpenXML, which has already been accepted as an “international standard” by the European Computer Manufacturer’s Association (ECMA), has been placed in a fast-track process to make the document format a global “open format.”
Microsoft has already integrated openXML in Office 2007 productivity software.
OpenXML is a relatively new standard that goes head to head with another standard, the Open Document Format (ODF), which is also an XML-based format backed by companies like Sun Microsystems, IBM, Oracle and Adobe. ODF is already an ISO standard.
OpenXML has replaced the binary-based format used by Microsoft for its Office suite of applications like Word, Powerpoint, Excel, among others. Using the binary format, documents or files are coded to be read only by Microsoft Office applications. OpenXML, however, replaces this format, and uses an open standard (XML) that can now be opened and manipulated by applications supporting the new format.
Other vendors supporting openXML are Apple, Intel, Novell and Toshiba, among others, Microsoft said.
“There’s no battle with regards to standards. We're just providing another standard to give people a choice. In the end, the market will decide which standard to adopt,” said Albert dela Cruz, platform strategy manager of Microsoft Philippines, in a briefing.
“We’ve stopped dismissing open source licensing and the community development as a dangerous folly or evil foe. Interoperability is the real need of clients that dictates co-existence,” the executive added.
The push for openXML is part of Microsoft’s effort to promote more interoperability of its products with other applications available, Dela Cruz said.
“It does make sense for us to interoperate with other systems to maximize our platform,” he stressed. “There is now a cry not only for open source but for open standards.”
