September 19th, 2007
If you’ve been following the industry news in the last few weeks you may have noted that Microsoft failed (narrowly) to secure ISO approval for Office Open XML (OOXML). Your eyes may also have glazed over while you moved on to the next story.
There are some extremely complex issues that underlie this story. They impact the development of document standards, the future of XML in publishing, Microsoft’s role in continuing to dominate software for document publishing and much more.
The most cogent column I’ve read on the standards aspect of the issue is by Jeremy Allison, published 9/17 on ZDNet Technology News, and appears here.
Recommend reading.
I will shortly be adding background information on this issue into my section on Software, listed under Influences.