Europe Rallies Over Standard
Europe Rallies Over Standard
February 5, 20017: Deadline close today for submissions on the Microsoft licensed Office Open XML standard stirring up anti-competition concerns and controversy across Europe.
Open source supporters OpenForum Europe (OFE) and the Open Document Format Alliance are concerned that the new Microsoft standard is currently being fast tracked to become a European ISO/IEC standard.
The standard has been submitted by the European Computer Manufacturers Association to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO,) shortly after the official launch of Microsoft Office 2007. Today marks the deadline for stakeholder engagement and comment on the standard, a deadline which both OFE and ODF have marked as ‘unrealistic.’
With the Office Open XML standard containing over 6,000 pages of supporting documentation, both organisations claim the standard is complex and has the potential to duplicate and in some places contradict the recently ratified Open Document Format standard.
The OFE is an organisation established to promote open source developments while the ODF Alliance works to promote the open document format. Both organisations have warned that the standard will “affect future formats of all document on which all office and work processing software depends.”
Graham Taylor, director Open Forum Europe, says the standard will ultimately affect convenience and cost. “I will reinforce the current supplier monopoly position, limit customer choice and increase costs for European business and consumers,” he says.