Appraisal concerning Microsoft participation

["Dennis E. Hamilton" <dennis.hamilton@acm.org>]

At the end of the October 29 call, I was asked, based on my experience at Microsoft Document Interoperability Initiative workshops, two questions about Microsoft participation with the OIC TC and with ODF.  I've been thinking about that and thought it worthwhile to report my impressions to the list.

1. With regard to Microsoft participation on the OIC TC, my impression is that it is under consideration and not ruled out.  It may be some time before anything more-specific is known.

2. With regard to whether I see that Microsoft is committed to supporting ODF, my experience is that they are.

I don't work for Microsoft and I am not privy to their deliberations on these matters.  I do enjoy living in Seattle and having proximity to Redmond.  There are both social and professional contacts with Microsoft staff.  I have done a small amount of consulting to Microsoft on interoperability-related topics, but nothing around ODF and standards development.  Please keep that in mind when you read the more-detailed perspective below, below.

 - Dennis

Dennis E. Hamilton
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NuovoDoc: Design for Document System Interoperability 
mailto:Dennis.Hamilton@acm.org | gsm:+1-206.779.9430 
http://NuovoDoc.com http://ODMA.info/dev/ http://nfoWorks.org 

MY PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE

1. MICROSOFT PARTICIPATION IN ODF INTEROPERABILITY EFFORTS

I think Microsoft wants to work in ways that promote interoperability of their implementations of standards and those of others.  I think that the approach for ODF interoperability may not gel until Microsoft Office 2007 SP2, with their ODF 1.1 implementation, is released to the public as a supported update.  

Based on conversations at the October DII Workshop, there is also exploration of how well the new SC34 WG5 (now directing toward interoperability between formats) may be an important venue.  In particular, ODF - OOXML interoperability is addressed there, and Microsoft's implementations are also oriented around that, as you can imagine.

There was also workshop discussion, as Rob mentioned, of promoting a collection of archetypical documents (more oriented to fields of use and communities of practice, rather than interoperable support for specific features).  The identification of templates as a basis for interoperable documents was also raised.

I think we must wait and see.  I expect that Microsoft will also take into consideration how they see us operating.

2. MICROSOFT COMMITMENT TO ODF

That is easy for me.  I don't expect a half-way ODF effort from Microsoft.  My experience with the two DII Workshops suggests that there is serious effort and commitment.

An example at the most-recent workshop was my having a problem opening any of the ODF 1.2 drafts using the Microsoft beta that was available there (although the ODF 1.1 specification opens just fine).  I mentioned this to one of the Word 2007 developers who had a colleague retrieve the file and test it.  Although it appears to be an OO.o 2.4 violation of the ODF 1.1 specification, they reported back to me they found a workaround that afternoon. [I must remember to request the specific details so I can create a demonstration case and also report it to OO.o if Microsoft hasn't already.]

They are also looking at ways to increase participation in the workshops, reducing the focus on face-to-face events, and other activities.  

Since our October 29 call, I have encountered further evidence of commitment to ODF:

 * At the 2008 Professional Developers Conference, it was announced that the WordPad accessory in Windows 7 will support both OOXML and ODF.  (This is a formatted-document utility that ships as part of Windows.  The one in Windows XP and Windows Vista only supports RTF and three flavors of text document.)  I predict that Windows Search support for content searching in ODF as well as OOXML won't be far behind.

 * Someone suggested to me that the WordPad implementation may be based on the support coming in Office "14".  I don't think that is so obvious.  It would be cool if WordPad were open-sourced as an example, though.

 * A second Microsoft expert, Eric Patterson, has joined the ODF TC.  Eric is from the Excel team.

 * Microsoft has begun submitting review comments on the drafts for ODF 1.2.