Format approved: More choice for all of us
 | Last month the International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) received the necessary votes to introduce a new standard in file formats – Open Office XML (OOXML). ISO is a global network of national standards institutes from 157 countries. It has a current portfolio of more than 17,000 standards for business, government and society After more than 14 months of intensive review, the proposed OOXML standard received extremely broad support. More than 85 percent of all voting national body members support standardisation, well above the 75 percent requirement for formal acceptance under ISO rules. So what is this all about? Around four years ago, Microsoft was faced with a dilemma. The immensely popular Office suite of productivity tools was the preferred option for users, and yet more and more customers were seeking ways to streamline work by making information from many sources available at the same time and place. |
Technology advances like Web Services that uses a text-based language to standardise communication of diverse data were allowing information to be brought together in a consistent format. However, user‑friendly access to this information remained a big challenge – often requiring multiple screens and programs to be open at once and users clicking between them. Customers basically wanted to carry on using their Office Outlook mail and calendar or Office Word document, simply pull the information that they needed directly into Office, and then send that document on its way as part of a work process. Although it sounded easy, it was in fact extremely difficult and one of the main stumbling blocks was the way Office stored information that described the contents of a document. This made it almost impossible for large line-of business systems such as HR and Finance and Planning applications to recognise and deal with information in document format.
Microsoft was challenged to fundamentally rethink its approach to supporting Information Workers: this led to the construction of a completely new file format that could support the new generation of interoperability and information access so desperately needed. Documents would no longer just be shared amongst humans, but now also with a vast array of computer systems all using different technologies, but all able to understand the human readable XML language underlying the file format’s design.
Standardising the format itself, then, became a natural step because the information in the files was no longer restricted to use by Microsoft Office, but would now traverse many non-Microsoft technologies as well. So started the journey to offer up the new Office file formats to the International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) culminating in an announcement last week that the OOXML File Format specification had been accepted as an ISO Standard-IS29500.
So what does this mean for consumers, business, government and the IT ecosystem as a whole? Firstly, it opens up a range of solution opportunities for everyone. Now that Microsoft has given over the full details of how Office stores information in its files, anyone is able to create software that can leverage this format. It means that information stored from now on in this human readable format remain immune to changes in technology in the future. You will still be able to access your files and documents in 50 or 100 years from now.
Since OOXML file format utilises the latest advances in technology, it now requires less space to store the same information. It’s also more secure and more flexible. Most importantly, the accreditation of Microsoft’s OOXML format as ISO Standard-IS29500 means that, for the first time, the future of your most familiar information, Office documents, will now be determined by the countries that comprise the Joint Technical committee and ISO.
Greg Stone, Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft Australia
