The case for a positive vote for Office Open XML Standard (ECMA-376)
Scope
- Not here to discuss JTC-1 process
- Not here to debate minute technical details
- All specs have issues - resolved via process
- This is not a competing standard-just as ODF and PDF don't compete
- Question is: Does this spec have significant value for the Australian economy and citizenry?
The vote we are casting…
- We are deciding, is Ecma-376 a fair representation of the OpenXML file format?
- Will it bring clear benefits to consumers of software in Australia?
- Do we want to grant access to the data that Australian citizens and businesses currently hold in binary Office formats?
- Getting Aust government and business involved in future development of Ecma-376, ISO DIS29500.
Respecting EU / IDABC Recommendations
European Union (IDABC)
http://europa.eu.int/idabc/en/document/2592/5588"The use of open document formats, such as WordML, improves interoperability"
"Microsoft should consider the merits of submitting XML formats to an international standards body of their choice"
Why OXML too?
ODF design goal - from the actual spec itself:
- This document defines an XML schema for office applications and its semantics. The schema is suitable for office documents, including text documents, spreadsheets, charts and graphical documents like drawings or presentations, but is not restricted to these kinds of documents.
- The schema provides for high-level information suitable for editing documents. It defines suitable XML structures for office documents and is friendly to transformations using XSLT or similar XML-based tools.
Why OXML too?
OXML design goal-from the ECMA spec
- This Part is one piece of a Standard that describes a family of XML schemas, collectively called Office Open XML, which define the XML vocabularies for word-processing, spreadsheet, and presentation documents, as well as the packaging of documents that conform to these schemas.
Here is where OpenXML differs radically in its design goals from other formats:
The goal is to enable the implementation of the Office Open XML formats by the widest set of tools and platforms, fostering interoperability across office productivity applications and line-of business systems, as well as to support and strengthen document archival and preservation, all in a way that is fully compatible with the large existing investments in Microsoft Office documents.
Multiple standard precedents
- Multiple standards for general purpose programming languages (C, C++, C#, FORTRAN, LISP, Eiffel, Pascal, etc
- Multiple standards for XML schema languages (SGML DTDs, RELAX NG, Schematron, Namespaceaware, DTDS, etc.), -have the same use.
- standards for both the POSIX ABI and Linux ABI; both have the same use
Office Open XML Formats
- Mature (>20 years) deep, broad set of characteristics used by billions of documents and millions of users - XML design and translation started 9 years ago
- Designed to represent all information of .doc, .ppt, .xls in XML
- 100% compatibility with .doc, .ppt, .xls
- All format characteristics, styles, content, options in binary formats represented in open XML formats
- Default format for Microsoft Office from now on
- Billions of existing documents to be converted to XML
- Free add-ons for past versions
- Default file format for Office 2007
- Bulk converters for documents
The Document Type Spectrum
ODF
Narrative Transactional
OXML
The Role of XML with Documents
Demanding Interoperability
Evolving Document-centric Customer Needs
| Scenario | Example |
|---|---|
| Document Assembly Server-based or user-assisted construction of documents from archived content or database content | Create sales reports from financial and forecast data stored in a CRM system |
| Content Reuse Much easier to move content between documents, including different document types | Apply content stored in Word documents to Web pages quickly and efficiently |
| Content Tagging Add domain-specific metadata to document content to enable custom solutions | Tag presentations using a specific taxonomy to improve knowledge management efficiency |
| Document Interrogation Query document repositories based on custom data, content types or document metadata | Search for all documents containing a specific company name or sales contact |
| Document Sanitization Remove unwanted content like comments or embedded code from your document when appropriate | Remove all tracked changes and comments from a Word document before it is published |
OpenXML-Custom Schema Support
Traditional document capabilities:
Facilitating a publishing process - Authoring, collaborating, sharing, printing etc
The new direction for documents:
Facilitating person-process interoperability
interoperabilityLinking user’s publishing activities and structured business data as part of business process – all in one XML document.
Example: XBRL and Open XML
User works on document with structured data from a back end system - document to update the system - all within a familiar Office environment.
Broad Industry support for OpenXML
Windows:
- Altsoft XML2PDF server 2007
- AltViewer documents preview
- Altova XML
- Spy Corel Office
- Create Word 2007 documents without Word installed
- doxc to RTF
- Madcap Flare
- Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP and Office 2003
- Microsoft Office 2007
- Mindjet's MindManager
- Monarch V.9.0 from Datawatch
- ODF-Converter
- OOX-UOF Converter
- Open ERP Software
- Open XML Translator
- Open XML translator for OpenOffice (for Linux and Windows Versions of OpenOffice.org)
- Open XML Writer PythonOffice (Python API to read and write Excel XML documents from within Python programming language)
- Sourceforge Project to allow .NET(C#) developer to have component that will interact with Open Xml file
- Special Templates for Master Thesis
- Word 2007 Map Editor for Mindjet MindManager
- Xpertdoc Studio 2007 reporting solution
Mac OS X:
- DOCX convertor for the Mac
- docx to html Konverter
- doxc to RTF Konverter
- MacLinkPlus Deluxe version 16 by DataViz
- Microsoft Office 2008
- Neo Office 2.1
- Sun Open XML import filter for spreadsheets
- Word Counter 2.2.1
- Apple iPhone
Linux:
- Gnumeric - open source Spreadsheet
- Open Office ..Novell edition
- Open XML translator for OpenOffice (for Linux and Windows Versions of OpenOffice.org)
Other Operating systems or Operating System independent:
- Docx2Doc Web Service
- DOCX convertor on Palm handheld devices
- OpenXML4J - Open XML framework for Java
- OpenXMLDeveloper.org (hundred of developers, multiple platforms)
- PHPExcel - Web Development (PHP)
- WebService with mailing of Document, docx to HTML
- Word 2007 file(docx) construction using Java
Change Creates Challenges
- An immense wealth of information is written in existing Microsoft Office formats
- Millions of users created Billions of documents over the past 20 years
- Users mandate backward compatibility with existing documents and products
- Anything less could be massively disruptive to users and risk unacceptable loss of content
We have some precedents...
Path to ISO:
Open XML: Microsoft -> Ecma-> ISO (via fast track: FAST TRACK)
ODF: SUN -> OASIS -> ISO (via fast track: PAS)
IP:
Open XML: : Microsoft -> OSP and CNS
ODF: SUN -> OpenDocument Patent Statement
Voting "YES" with comments:
Open XML: Tech issues raised through ballot -> BRM
ODF: Tech Issues raised by 8 countries
Office Open XML Cosponsors
- Apple
- Barclays Capital BP British Library Essilor Intel Corporation Microsoft Corporation NextPage Inc. Novell Statoil ASA Toshiba The US Library of Congress
List of Applications with Office Open XML
Windows:
- Altsoft XML2PDF server 2007
- AltViewer documents preview
- Altova XML Spy
- Corel Office
- Create Word 2007 documents without Word installed
- doxc to RTF
- Madcap Flare
- Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP and Office 2003
- Microsoft Office 2007
- Mindjet's MindManager
- Monarch V.9.0 from Datawatch
- ODF-Converter
- OOX-UOF Converter
- Open ERP Software
- Open XML Translator
- Open XML translator for OpenOffice (for Linux and Windows Versions of OpenOffice.org)
- Open XML Writer
- PythonOffice (Python API to read and write Excel XML documents from within Python programming language)
- Sourceforge Project to allow .NET(C#) developer to have component that will interact with Open Xml file
- Special Templates for Master Thesis
- Word 2007 Map Editor for Mindjet MindManager
- Xpertdoc Studio 2007 reporting solution
Mac OS X:
- DOCX convertor for the Mac
- docx to html Konverter
- doxc to RTF Konverter
- MacLinkPlus Deluxe version 16 by DataViz
- Microsoft Office 2008
- Neo Office 2.1
- Sun Open XML import filter for spreadsheets
- Word Counter 2.2.1
Linux:
- Gnumeric - open source Spreadsheet
- Open Office ..Novell edition
- Open XML translator for OpenOffice (for Linux and Windows Versions of OpenOffice.org)
Other Operating systems or Operating System independent:
- Docx2Doc Web Service
- DOCX convertor on Palm handheld devices
- OpenXML4J - Open XML framework for Java
- OpenXMLDeveloper.org (hundred of developers, multiple platforms)
- PHPExcel - Web Development (PHP)
- WebService with mailing of Document, docx to HTML
- Word 2007 file(docx) construction using Java
The Path to Standardisation
- Documentation prepared by Microsoft and submitted to Ecma, based upon the Office 2007 file format and well documented customer requirements.
- Need for backward compatibility and fidelity with billions of existing documents
- Need for the file format to fully represent the features of the Microsoft office platform as a starting point
- Ability to use the file format as a developer tool, enabling new types of data led applications
- Entities within Ecma worked on the standard, requesting and adding much more information;
- Including… Apple, Barclays Capital, BP, The British Library, Essilor, Intel, Microsoft, NextPage, Novell, Statoil, Toshiba, and the United States Library of Congress
- Ratified as Ecma-376, a global published standard in December'06.
- Submitted to ISO for approval as DIS 29500
- Contradiction period (looking at the role of this standard and the overlap with other existing standards) - approved to progress to a technical ballot
- Approval by country ISO committees based upon technical merits of the standard
- Yes (with or without comments)
- Abstain
- No (with comments, and suggest resolutions)
- Ballot resolution meeting is the next stage, where those voting no, or simply wanting to discuss comments are invited to meet in person and resolve any outstanding issues in the spirit of positive collaboration.
The Evolution of ECMA 376
- 2005: ECMA International starts work on Office Open XML
- Founding members of ECMA TC 45:
- Apple, Barclays Capital, BP, The British Library, Essilor, Intel Corporation, Microsoft, NextPage Inc., Statoil ASA, Toshiba
- Goal of ECMA TC 45:
- create ECMA Office Open XML Format standard
- contribute ECMA Office Open XML Format standard to ISO/IEC JTC 1 for approval and adoption by ISO and IEC
- To steward future evolution of Office Open XML
- Open process
- Technical Committee open to any ECMA member. Novell, US Library of Congress joined TC45 after creation
- Initial draft, about 2.000 Pages
- Work Progress/Transparency:
- Weekly conference calls
- Meeting regularly
- Initial and Interim drafts posted publicly on ECMA web site
- External feedback - SC34 experts, others
- 7. December 2006: ECMA General Assembly
- Overwhelming positive vote
- Approval to Submit to ISO Final
- Standard about 6.000 Pages (through changes and supplements in TC45)
SourceForge ODF Converter
- Microsoft is funding and providing architectural guidance to build ODF plug-in
- Set of open source tools on SourceForge under a BSD license
- Read and "save as" functionality of ODF in Office 2007 and previous versions (via compatibility pack)
- Tested for EU Document conformance
- Eg. round-trip interoperability with a translation bureau working with ODF
Peaceful Coexistence
- ODF Converter for Microsoft Office
- Open XML support for OpenOffice.org released by Novell
- Gnumeric spreadsheet software supports OpenXML
- Next version of Corel WordPerfect will support both Open XML and ODF (Mid 2007)
Improving current position:
- Already in market:
- growing base of users - Windows/non-windows
- Massachusetts now endorses OpenXML
- Gaining ISO standard benefits all those users.
- Co-existence of format already:
- Translator projects building a technical bridge between Open XML : ODF
- Operational support for binary->XML (Office Migration Planning Manager)
No comments:
Post a Comment