OpenOffice and ISO
Tim Bray outlines the Sun response to recent conclusions from the European Commission on document standards. In short, the OOo OASIS TC is now on its way towards ISO submission, and the next version of both the commericial StarOffice package and the open source OpenOffice will include filters for WordML and ExcelML. That the OASIS TC recently approved the inclusion of a new citation schema makes this all the more interesting.
Tim offers the following quote from the commission, which I quite like:
Transparency and accessibility requirements dictate that public information and government transactions avoid depending on technologies that imply or impose a specific product or platform on businesses or citizens.
Alas, I can’t tell you how often people send me—or insist I send them—.doc files. It’s really discouraging. I just deleted an email from someone wanting me to submit information in a .doc file after telling them four or five times I don’t accept them. Sigh …
