ODF * 2 and Open XML

Blogger: Peter O'Kelly

A timely reality check from Mary Jo Foley -- OpenDocument Foundation folds. Will Microsoft benefit?  Excerpt:

The OpenDocument Foundation — a group whose name and charter would lead one to believe that it was backing the OpenDocument Format (ODF), but which ended up backing a different document format instead — has closed its doors.

Sam Hiser, a systems consultant who was Vice President & Director Business Affairs at the OpenDocument Foundation, confirmed that ODF is closing its doors in a blog post on November 13. Hiser and a number of the other OpenDocument Foundation backers earlier this year decided to throw their weight behind a Worldwide Web Consortium document standard, the Compound DOcument Format (CDF), and back away from ODF.

Read Mary Jo Foley's full article for more details.

Coincidentally, I'm currently working on a Burton Group document on OpenDocument Format, Open XML, and related topics.  Some of my impressions:

1.  "OpenDocument Foundation" was an unfortunate name choice, due to the namespace collision (ODF = OpenDocument Foundation and OpenDocument Format; the latter is the name of the OASIS and ISO document format standard; the former is the name of a now-defunct group originally sponsored by OASIS that was chartered to help advance the use of OpenDocument Format).

2.  ODF (the OASIS-sponsored and subsequently abandoned group) went cold on ODF (the document format) after the standards group shepherding the model declined to incorporate some extensions recommended by the group -- extensions which would have, among other things, made it possible for OpenDocument-formatted documents to round-trip with Microsoft Office users in workflows without losing Office document metadata.

3.  ODF (the group) selected the W3C Compound Document Formats as its path forward, and announced it was no longer advocating ODF (the standard).

4.  A bunch of press channels picked up the "ODF abandons ODF" story and apparently didn't do sufficiently detailed homework on the charter/status/etc. of ODF the group.

There's a lot more to this topic -- stay tuned...

Comments

[Rob Weir]

Hi Peter,

I'm pretty close to ODF, as co-Chair of the ODF TC, a frequent blogger on the topic, conference speaker on ODF, etc. So I'd like to offer a few comments/corrections.

1) No one but the three remaining OpenDocument Foundation members refer to the Foundation as "ODF". There is too much obvious room for confusion.

2) The Foundation in no way was sponsored by OASIS. The Foundation was a member of OASIS, one of around 15 who worked on ODF, but they had no extra or special relationship to the format beyond any other OASIS member.

3) You say that OASIS rejected the Foundation's proposals which would have "made it possible for OpenDocument-formatted documents to round-trip with Microsoft Office users in workflows without losing Office document metadata." That is an opinion. Does that reflect your opinion? If not, whose is it? If you are just restating what the Foundation told you, then this really should say "which the Foundation claims would have made it possible...". Note that this claim is not widely held, and in my expert opinion I do not believe it to be true. If I thought it would lead to improved interoperability, I would have supported it.