Microsoft’s Interop Chief: People Should Choose Their Own Standards
In an interview with BetaNews earlier this week, Microsoft General Manager for Interoperability and Standards Tom Robertson volunteered to present his company’s present stance on the perennially controversial topic of interoperability, and the degree to which it can be reasonably achieved without giving away trade secrets.
While discussion continues among members of the International Standards Organization over whether to ratify ECMA’s recommendation that Microsoft’s Office Open XML format be adopted as an international standard, Robertson told us in response to a question about who truly determines standards, that Microsoft believes people make the final decision - not companies, not countries, and perhaps not really agencies.
The controversy over whether the prevalence of Microsoft Office in the workplace locks customers into the company’s proprietary format and precludes their ability to choose alternatives, first heated up in September 2005.
At that time, the State of Massachusetts issued a kind of unofficial proclamation that was nonetheless heard loud and clear: “The Commonwealth defines open formats as specifications for data file formats that are based on an underlying open standard, developed by an open community, affirmed and maintained by a standards body, and are fully documented and publicly available.”
The Commonwealth made that statement by way of voicing its support for OpenDocument Format (ODF) as its choice for systems to be used by its employees. Since that time, California has added its voice to the debate, treating the Massachusetts statement as a kind of state worker’s information bill of rights.
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