Open XML- Denmark, now Massachusetts

Massachusetts is now in a public review period of their updated ETRM policy that moves Ecma Open XML to the list of approved standards. This comes shortly after Denmark stated (had translation in my blog) that Ecma Open XML meets their needs as an open standard as well. The effect of these steps is straightfoward and simple. As organizations, they advocate openness of document formats - they advocate competition in the market place - they advocate maximizing choice of solutions - they advocate innovations in the solutions they can choose to solve business challenges. I wrote about these thems more extensively last week.

In the same policy - Massachusetts recognizes OpenDocument Format (ODF) 1.1 from OASIS. From OASIS, not ISO/IEC JTC-1. In other words - they want to make use of the most up to date, best value-for money solutions provided that the level of openness they are looking to have is met. They are explicit in their desire to use translation for interoperability between ODF and Open XML. They are also interested in seeing ASCII Text remain viable as well as PDF for state agency use. 

Interop of doc formats is a reality today and will only continue to improve over time. The choices available to any organization around doc formats is more interesting today due to the push for openness that began many years ago. I think this is a really positive development.

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