Microsoft announced that XML will be the default file format for Office 12. I’ll look more at the details and what this means to OpenOffice etc. when I get a chance, but this is certainly great news and another major step forward for XML in general and Microsoft’s support for it. It looks like Microsoft has addressed (full Microsoft press release) the main concerns that critics exposed during the OpenOffice debate we have been covering here and in our conferences. Tim is impressed!
Update: Dan Farber has some additional info from Microsoft.
Update 2: Dan points to info from Rick Schaut on Office 12 Mac XML support.
Category: Collaboration and workplace (Page 66 of 98)
This category is focused on enterprise / workplace collaboration tools and strategies, including office suites, intranets, knowledge management, and enterprise adoption of social networking tools and approaches.
Microsoft Corp. announced that it is adopting XML technology for the default file formats in the next version of Microsoft Office editions, currently code-named “Office 12.” The new file formats, called Microsoft Office Open XML Formats, will become the defaults for the “Office 12” versions of Microsoft Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint, which are expected to be released in the second half of 2006. The interoperability capabilities of the Microsoft Office Open XML Formats enable Microsoft Office applications to directly access data stored in systems outside those applications, such as server-based line-of-business applications. These third-party applications, in turn, can access data stored in the new Office file formats. Microsoft Office Open XML Formats are fully documented file formats with a royalty-free license. Anyone can integrate them directly into their servers, applications and business processes, without financial consideration to Microsoft. People using Office 2000, Office XP and Office 2003 will be able to open, edit and save files using the new formats, thanks to a free update available as a download from Microsoft that enables those older Office versions to work with the new formats. Documents created with the current binary file formats in Office also will be fully compatible with “Office 12” applications. So workers can save documents to their current formats and exchange those documents with people using “Office 12” — and when they upgrade to “Office 12,” they can continue to use their existing binary documents. Microsoft will provide further technical information about the Microsoft Office Open XML Formats, including draft versions of the schemas, to help ensure that developers and IT professionals can be prepared to take advantage of the formats before product shipment. People interested in the new file formats and the next version of Office can get additional information beginning Monday, June 6 at a preview site, http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview
It is excellent news that OASIS has approved OpenDocument as a standard. Hopefully it will also become an ISO standard. However, neither of these mean that it is necessarily the right approach for you. A single schema, no matter how well-designed, will not work for everyone. James Governor is quoted in the release: “One key to success will be the royalty free status of the spec; there are no financial penalties associated with developing to it.” Very true, but Microsoft’s schema is also royalty and cost free, and I believe they have committed (contractually even I think…?) e.g., to the EU, to keep it that way. See more on this here and here.
OASIS announced that its members have approved the Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0 as an OASIS Standard, a status that signifies the highest level of ratification. OpenDocument provides a royalty-free, XML-based file format that covers features required by text, spreadsheets, charts, and graphical documents. OpenDocument provides a single XML schema for text, spreadsheets, charts, and graphical documents. It makes use of existing standards, such as HTML, SVG, XSL, SMIL, XLink, XForms, MathML, and the Dublin Core, wherever possible. OpenDocument has been designed as a package concept, enabling it to be used as a default file format for office applications with no increase in file size or loss of data integrity. Future plans for the OASIS OpenDocument Technical Committee include extending the standard to encompass additional areas of applications and users, as well as adapting it to incorporate ongoing developments in office applications. All those interested in advancing this work, including governments, open source initiatives, educational institutions, and software providers, are encouraged to participate in the Committee. OASIS hosts an open mail list for public comment and the opendocument-dev mailing list for exchanging information on implementing the standard. http://www.oasis-open.org
I am often guilty of not keeping up with the blogs that are worth reading. I recently took to reading Dave Winer’s blog regularly, and it is a real pleasure. He has all kinds of good technical insight, of course, and has been talking a lot about podcasting lately. You could make the argument Dave is the father of blogging, so it is interesting to keep up with where he thinks things are going.
For Immediate Release:
Microsoft, DocSoft, Idiom, Solace Software Join Impressive List of Sponsors, Exhibitors
Contacts:
Joy Blake Scott
Longleaf Public Relations
joy@longleafpr.com
Jeffrey Arcuri
Lighthouse Seminars
781-821-6634
jarcuri@lighthouseseminars.com
Alexandria, VA and Cambridge, MA, May 12, 2005. XTech 2005 (formerly XML Europe) and the Gilbane Conference on Content Management today announced four new industry sponsors for their conferences, being held concurrently 24-27 May, 2005, at the Amsterdam RAI Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) joins Adobe Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) and Blast Radius at the Gold Sponsorship level. At the Silver Sponsorship level, DocSoft, Idiom and Solace Systems have been added to a list of sponsors that includes Antenna House, Astoria Software, AuthorIT, Exegenix, Fast Search & Transfer Inc., Immediacy, O’Reilly, Percussion Software, Quark, Quasar Technology, Syncro Soft, and Vamosa. Justsystem Corporation is the Diamond Sponsor of both events.
“The list of sponsors and exhibitors at these events is truly a ‘who’s who’ in XML and related technologies,” says Marion L. Elledge, Vice President of Information Technology Alliances and Conferences, IDEAlliance. “From industry giants to smaller, cutting-edge firms, they cover the full spectrum of what’s happening in XML and content management today.”
“We couldn’t be more excited about the companies participating,” says Frank Gilbane, Gilbane Conference Chair. “Combined with the educational and networking opportunities of the two conferences, no one in the industry can afford to miss this unprecedented joint event.”
For information on presentations, sponsorships, exhibiting and other marketing opportunities at XTech 2005, visit http://www.xtech-conference.org. For general information and to register to attend, visit http://www.xtech-conference.org/2005/registration.asp.
For more information on the Gilbane Conference on Content Management, visit: https://gilbane.com/Amsterdam_05_program.html
About IDEAlliance
IDEAlliance (International Digital Enterprise Alliance) is a not-for-profit membership organization. Its mission is to advance user-driven, cross-industry solutions for all publishing and content-related processes by developing standards, fostering business alliances, and identifying best practices. Founded in 1966 as the Graphic Communications Association, IDEAlliance has been a leader in information technology – developing Document Markup Metalanguage (GENCODE), sponsoring the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), and fostering eXtensible Markup Language (XML). IDEAlliance builds on these languages to create specifications that enhance efficiency and speed information in all aspects of publishing and content-related processes. Learn more about IDEAlliance at www.idealliance.org.
About Bluebill Advisors, The Gilbane Report
Bluebill Advisors, Inc. serves the content management community with publications, conferences and consulting services. The Gilbane Report administers the Content Technology Works program disseminating best practices with partners Software AG (TECdax:SOW), Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:SUNW), Artesia Technologies, Atomz, Astoria Software, ClearStory Systems (OTCBB:INCC), Context Media, Convera (NASDAQ:CNVR), IBM (NYSE:IBM ), Idiom Technologies, Mark Logic, Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX), Trados, Vasont, and Vignette (NASDAQ:VIGN). www.gilbane.com
About Lighthouse Seminars
Lighthouse Seminars’ events cover information technologies and “content technologies” in particular. These include content management of all types, digital asset management, document management, web content management, enterprise portals, enterprise search, web and multi-channel publishing, electronic forms, authoring, content and information integration.
www.lighthouseseminars.com
Interwoven announced two new content-centric solutions, the Interwoven Salesforce Productivity Intranet, and Channel Extranet, designed to help marketing organizations within the financial services, manufacturing and high technology industries to achieve sales and channel optimization. The new Interwoven Salesforce Productivity Intranet solution enables marketing organizations to provide sales personnel with the latest, most compelling information and sales tools even in the context of rapidly changing markets and campaigns, while the Interwoven Channel Extranet solution enables sales and marketing executives to make the channel a more seamless and effective extension of the internal sales organization. Based on the latest version of Interwoven’s LiveSite Content Publishing technology, the solutions include packaged templates, components, best practices and pre-built websites that make it simpler for business users to create and deploy intranet and extranet sites for specific salesforce and channel initiatives.
Related articles:
We have published the results of our informal survey on enterprise use of blog, wiki and RSS technologies. We’ll keep the survey going for awhile and will update the results every so often. To date there are 58 respondents.
A few interesting tidbits:
- Although most respondents are using one of the technologies, only half of them have official IT support.
- knowledge management, internal information dissemination (portals!?), and project collaboration are all closely grouped as the leading applications.
- Shockingly, only a third use RSS!
- Almost a third are using one or more of these for content management. We’ll be sure to explore what this means in our upcoming Amsterdam keynote debate.
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