Matusow's Blog

Brian Jones has posted the news that Draft 1.3 of the Open XML format spec has been posted. He has a solid blog entry on the news and rather than paraphrase it, I just copied it over here. - Jason ***** From Brian Jones' Blog ***** Draft 1.3 of...

For those of you with interest in the tech side of the XML-based file format discussion, I'd recommend you check out Brian Jones' blog . Here is a great entry on performance issues. http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/2006/05/16/599096.aspx

A point I have made often in my blog over the past year and a half is about the commercial implications of "open" solutions. The fact is, the big money and human resources being applied to projects such as the ODF specification process and/or large OSS...

I know that Tim Bray has recently suggested that I am in la la land and spewing various forms of manure on my blog and in the press. I generally assume that my wife is the only one that would make such a suggestion – but hey I’ve been known to be wrong...

Part 2 in the series: Ecosystems Based On Open Formats Another important issue that keeps surfacing in the standard-based format discussion is how the availability of open data formats (Open XML or OpenDocument) enables the growth of an ecosystem of...

A good editorial from the San Jose Mercury News. San Jose Mercury News Too much tech regulation would hinder services of IT specialists By Alan Weinberger May 10, 2006 http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/14543676...

Part 1 in the series: Interoperability Let's start with the real issue at hand - interoperability. Our customers care about interoperability. In fact, they rank it right up there with security and reliability when they consider what is most important...

For the past four weeks I have been attending to my work helping Microsoft rethink its approach to software standards. A great deal of that work involves addressing internal issues as to how we think about interoperability and the role that standards...

Next week I will be on the road talking to editors, analysts, and leading thinkers in the industry around standards. Microsoft has a history of looking at standards through the exclusive filter of its products. In many ways this silo-ed approach has been...

In the past few days, the rhetoric on both sides of the file format debate seems to have heated up. The ODF Alliance has been launched and it is a good thing on the part of the developers of the software that will use that format. What seems to have really...

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting Bob Sutor of IBM and sitting on a panel with him at the Open Source Business Conference. Bob strikes me as a very intelligent man, and given the constant level of quality in his blog postings, he is someone...

Back to blogging. Too easy to get wrapped up in work and home and not put in the time for the blog. On Feb. 15 I spent an hour on a panel moderated by Andy Updegrove (Gesmer Updegrove LLP), and joined by Tim Bray (Sun), Bob Sutor (IBM), and Stephen...

This is from my old world in Shared Source. Great news from Nenad Stefanovic, the project lead for the Windows Template Library project. On Dec. 8 he released 7.5 and the bits are available. They are now working on 8.0. Congratulations Nenad and WTL community...

I have been partaking in an academic-style event on standards here in Vancouver B.C. this week. So far, the presentations have been strong and the audience participation lively. For a neophyte like myself on this topic overall it has been very educational...

After almost 15 years in the software business and 10+ at Microsoft I have worked on numerous projects where industry standards have been part of things. When I was an infrastructure systems engineer in the field doing network design and working on NT...

Years ago, it was suggested that there was a civil war in Microsoft based on open source. There allegedly was the Star Wars–inspired rebel alliance of openness fighting against the forces of closed. Coming out of that set of accusations, I was always...

A few weeks ago I picked up a brand new Toyata Prius. The nerd in me loves this thing and I have been very pleased about my visits to the gas station. Nine gallons is getting me around 385 miles and then I go and spend a whopping $17 at the gas station...

Today Microsoft announced the intent to submit the Office "12" XML file formats to Ecma International to become an open standard. I'm guessing there might be more than 5 articles written about it and maybe even a few bloggers will post. Is it really worth...

Updated the post - the link to the pictures at the end should be fixed. (That's what you get for setting up something in 3 minutes from O'Hare between flights.) Also putting in a great comment I got privately by someone who asks to remain annonymous....

My OSBC keynote seems to have kicked off an interesting discussion on Slashdot . Overall the discussion is erudite and going in some interesting directions. It is pretty obvious that the simple fact that I work for Microsoft has colored the impression...

Once again my friend Matt Asay is putting on a strong show at OSBC East . The OSBC conferences have been interesting to me because of their focus on those that are building businesses around OSS . In my keynote on Wed. this week I will be taking a look...

9 new Shared Source releases....

Microsoft releases 3 simplified source code licenses....

The project leader for the Windows Template Library project up on SourceForge dropped me a note the other day. In case you are interested, the WTL project just released Beta 1 of WTL 7.5. Here are the links. Project link: http://sourceforge.net/projects...

A solid piece of work has been put into motion today by Microsoft and JBoss. Competitive interoperability is among the most difficult steps for organizations to take. The News First of all, if you haven’t seen the news yet , Microsoft and JBoss...