OOXML and the future of open standards

gallery

He spoke about the evolution of standards in the context of the internet, and stressed that "among the properties most critical to the success of these standards has been the open process of their development and evolution, and the freedom with which the standards are accessible. That all the documents of the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), for example, have been available at no charge and online, has contributed to the adoption of internet standards developed through the IETF process, and to the ease with which any interested party could participate in further development."

Andy Updegrove and Bob Sutor spoke more directly about the potential effects of the OOXML decision, Updegrove repeating his call for "Civil ICT Standards". Hakon Lie recounted his personal history of the web, from his early days sharing an office at CERN with Tim Berners-Lee to Opera's recent antitrust complaint to the European Commission, which uniquely demands reparation in the form of compelling Microsoft "to give consumers a real choice and to support open web standards in Internet Explorer."

The conference concluded with a joint declaration from members of the European Open Community pledging to "maintain the openness and integrity of the Internet", and to work "to ensure that the role, definition, and application of Open Standards is not mitigated or limited by proprietary pressure. We believe it essential that these steps are matched by Government, through active support for such standards through appropriate frameworks, procurement policies and organisational remit."

Whatever the outcome might be for OOXML, many of the conference participants felt that both OOXML and the reputation of the standards process had been tainted by recent events. The future of ODF as the dominant standard for office documents remains optimistic, whatever the outcome of the ISO process.

Email to a friend

Print this page