Despite recent storms over the resignation of Massachusetts CIO Peter Quinn, prospects are bright that state MIS execs in 2007 will adopt the OpenDocument Format (ODF) as a way to “open up” Microsoft Office documents. So says Sun Microsystems’ standards manager Doug Johnson.
Johnson told OET the ODF effort remains “steady as she goes,” despite Quinn’s resignation, who was one of ODF’s most high-level and high-visibility supporters. “I am feeling optimistic,” Johnson told OET. “For the first time in a long-time, Massachusetts is not on fire anymore.”
Johnson admits that Quinn’s resignation initially raise storm clouds throughout the pro-ODF community. “Everyone we look at as our natural allies might look at this [resignation] and say, ‘This is kind of nasty. Peter explicitly said he left because of the huge political controversy that surrounded this ODF decision,” Johnson told OET
In fact, in his email resignation, Quinn stated the direct tie-in between his decision to leave his MIS job and the ODF controversy. “Many of these events have been very disruptive and harmful to my personal well-being, my family and many of my closest friends. This is a burden I will no longer carry,” Quinn said, in part.
ODF is a push to open up long-time proprietary document formats inside Microsoft Office applications (for Word, Excel and even Powerpoint documents). . Aside from Sun, ODF supporters also include IBM, Red Hat, Google and Novell. As defined by OASIS last year, ODF lays out specs for an open, standardized, application-independent, XML-based file format that can be implemented within any software program. ODF covers the features required by text, spreadsheets, charts and graphical documents.
Sun’s 3 Reasons for ODF Optimism
Despite Quinn’s resignation, only several weeks later Johnson seems to be of the sense that a New Year brings new optimism. Johnson gives three (3) key reasons for being upbeat on ODF prospects, even without his vocal supporter:
- Massachusetts officials issued a statement right after Quinn’s resignation, stating that Quinn’s leaving will not derail its push to explore “open” and “standard” alternatives to the still-proprietary Microsoft Office document format.
(Massachusetts Secretary of Administration and Finance Thomas H. Trimarco, met with Massachusetts’ General Counsel Linda Hamel and unequivocally assured her that Peter Quinn’s departure “will result in no change to the Administration’s position on the ODF standard.” Massachusetts’ stated policy is to adopt open formats for documents in 2007. (For more on Massachusetts’s intention to stay-the-course, see Andrew Updegrove’s Consortium Info blog on IT policy and regulatory issues.
- Microsoft officials may be awakening to the need to offer an open and/or standard document format. Microsoft has submitted their proprietary Office XML Reference Schema document formats to the ECMA/ISO committee to be considered and approved as a standard.
(The Microsoft move, according to ZD Net’s David Berlind, came in response to increasing pressure by Massachusetts officials to hand over its formats to a multi-party body, or otherwise assure the state that Microsoft formats would be open. [See Berlind’s blow-by-blow blog entries on ODF and Microsoft here.]
- Even with Quinn’s departure, ODF is now an OASIS standard, which could be referenced by many users, including state IT departments, commercial firms and even European Union users.
OASIS ratified its Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0 as an OASIS Standard, a status that signifies the highest level of ratification. OpenDocument provides a royalty-free, XML-based file format that covers features required by text, spreadsheets, charts, and graphical documents.
Given these 3 key dynamics, Johnson told OET the Plan B for ODF adoption will rely more on process – and less on personalities. “We thank Peter immensely for bringing the issue to international attention. He took some arrows in the back for a cause he believed in,” Johnson conceded. “But, now in an ironic way, we have a lot of participants involved in the process, including Microsoft and international organizations, so we think now it is time to put more focus on the process,”
In fact, the current ODF OASIS standard is “going through ISO balloting as we speak, and of course, Microsoft will be working with ECMA soon,” Johnson said [ECMA is also an ISO unit].
Inside the ODF Controversy:
Are Office Docs “Locked Down”?
ODF is a frontal assault on Microsoft’s long-time use of proprietary document formats inside Microsoft Word/Microsoft Office. Aside from Sun, ODF supporters also include IBM, Red Hat, Google and Novell. The whole idea of ODF, supporters say, is to unlock the underlying documents that users create, update and store from the need to use Microsoft Office software to open them.In specific, ODF, (as approved by OASIS last year), offers specs for an open, standardized, application-independent, XML-based file format that can be implemented within any software program. ODF covers the features required by text, spreadsheets, charts and graphical documents.
Meanwhile, Novell is also re-energizing its ODF support, stating it will deliver ODF in its next edition of its Linux enterprise desktop later this year. Novell’s SuSE Linux added ODF support in March 2005.
“True open standards, like OpenDocument, are subject to public inspection and contribution and are unencumbered by property rights and the individual agendas of specific vendors,” said Novell CEO Jack Messman in a statement. “Users need these conditions to completely trust the standard to remain perpetually open. It’s that openness that ensures customer choice, and customer choice has long been Novell’s priority.”