The next DII workshop will be on June 8, 2010 in Redmond. This event will focus on digital signatures and a new technical signing standard supported by Office 2010, called XAdES (XML Advanced Digital Electronic Signatures). XAdES consists of a set of extensions to the XML-DSig standard (supported by Office 2007) and gives users additional features, like the ability to timestamp signatures or store certificate and revocation information with the signature.

The goal of this event is to share information about Office’s support for XAdES and related standards and solicit feedback on how we can work together to improve interoperability in this space in the next version of Office.

Here’s a general outline of what the workshop will include:

  • Presentations from members of the Office product team that give an overview of digital signatures and how they are used in Office.
  • Presentation on XAdES support in Office.
  • Presentations from consumers of Office digital signatures and other experts on how they use digital signatures, what standards they prefer to work with, why they are important, etc.
  • Roundtable discussion time, so that we can hear your feedback.

The agenda will be fleshed out in more detail as the event draws nearer. Also, if you have a digital signatures or document format interoperability topic that you would like to present, please let us know. This is a community event, and we'd like to see many voices and many perspectives involved.

To register for this event, please send Amruta Gulanikar your name, email, and company/organization via this contact form, and we'll follow up with more details including hotel recommendations and related information.