All eyes on how Microsoft pulls off ODF support

Microsoft’s declaration last week that it would finally support ODF (OpenDocument Format) and join in further development of the rival document format was applauded by many critics as a major step forward, but the outcome of those steps will be under review for years to come, observers say.

After winning a 15-month acrimonious battle to get OOXML (Office OpenXML) approved as a standard by the International Standardization Organization (ISO), Microsoft last week said it would add support for alternative file formats in Office 2007 by the middle of 2009. Support for the ISO version of OOXML will likely come in the same time frame as part of the next full release of Office.

Foremost among those alternatives is ODF, which was juxtaposed as the rival format during the time OOXML was winding its way first through the standardization process at industry standards association ECMA and then at the ISO.

The European Commission, which in January opened an antitrust investigation into Microsoft Office, said in a statement that it would welcome any Microsoft effort toward more interoperability, consumer choice and less vendor lock-in.

But the commission, weary of dealing with Microsoft, added in a statement, “The Commission will investigate whether the announced support of OpenDocument Format in Office leads to better interoperability and allows consumers to process and exchange their documents with the software product of their choice.”

Critics say Microsoft will be under continued scrutiny given that it does not plan to implement support for ODF for another year. The company says it will issue a Service Pack for Office 2007 that will add support for ODF, PDF 1.5, PDF/A, and XPS (XML Paper Specification), which is another Microsoft-developed format.

“If Microsoft follows through on this it is a very positive development,” says Marino Marcich, executive director of the OpenDocument Format Alliance . “But I think we have seen that states, governments, and others are looking for actions not words.”

Marcich says that is particularly true given that Microsoft’s first attempt at ODF support came via a translator that so far has garnered mixed results at best.

“It is a question of whether Microsoft is throwing ODF into the back of the bus or into the front of the bus with OOXML,” says Marcich. “What do they mean by support? The devil is in the details.”

Microsoft says the details are clear.

“None of this means anything unless you deliver interoperability,” says Tom Robertson, general manager of interoperability and standards at Microsoft. “This is not just shipping the translator; this is support in Office 2007 for ODF 1.1.”

Robertson said Office 2007 Service Pack 2 will let users natively open, edit and save documents using ODF and save documents into XPS and PDF formats from within Office applications. The service pack also will allow ODF to be set as the default file format for Office 2007.

A translator, however, will be used to support ODF in Office 2003, XP and 2000.

Robertson said Microsoft will actively participate in the ISO working group maintaining ISO 29500, the OOXML standard, and join the ODF working group at the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), both of which he called further proof of Microsoft’s commitment.

Some say Microsoft should have joined the OASIS group when it formed in 2003 and now finds itself coming full circle after a battle at the ISO that resulted in a lot of bad PR.

Andy Updegrove, a lawyer, Linux Foundation board member and author of the Consortiuminfo.org’s Standards blog calls the ISO process to standardize OOXML a “pyrrhic victory,” a hollow victory gained at too high a cost.

“Microsoft got through the battle and it’s ‘we won, now what?’ Well ‘now what?’ turned out to be ‘so what.’ ” What did they gain; it appears that for a couple of years at least they have not gained anything. And a five-year strategy [to dodge] ODF has failed.”

Regardless, Updegrove says he is encouraged by Microsoft’s willingness to support ODF and says some good has come out of OOXML standardization process.

“It has demonstrated that the traditional ISO process is clearly not up to modern challenges and if it is going to continue to be relevant at a minimum it needs a rules overhaul for the tough situations [like OOXML]. And second, it has made the public aware of the fact that open standards are as important as open source, open development, open content, open research, and that these things have a bigger meaning than just vendor to vendor.”