OASIS ODF Logo. Source: http://odftoolkit.org/

Sun Microsystems announced in a press release that they and IBM have started the ODF Toolkit Union, a project to increase support for the OpenDocument format.

The ODF Toolkit will use an initial software code contribution from Sun to provide developers with an easy-to-use Application Programming Interface (API) for reading, writing and manipulating ODF documents while accelerating additional application development. One part of the initial code contribution is an ODF Validator, a tool that validates OpenDocument files and checks certain conformance criteria. Capitalizing on the open, elegant nature of ODF, the Toolkit targets developers who want to create new applications and solutions ranging from content management, business workflows and activities to Web-based document solutions.

The ODF Toolkit will break down barriers between people and their data by providing support for a wide range of new applications. The ODF Toolkit Union will complement other industry efforts such as the ODF standardization work done at the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS). These initiatives collectively are eliminating the economical and technical barriers to creativity, use and overall utility of documents.

I’m hoping that GNOME Office uses this as an opportunity to add proper OpenDocument support to their products. Currently you have better interoperability with the reverse-engineered Microsoft Office binary formats than with ODF.

• Sun Microsystems
• OpenOffice.org
• The ODF Toolkit Project
• Slashdot

OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org 3.0 was released yesterday, and servers are barely able to keep up with the onslaught of downloaders.

With enough people clamoring for OpenOffice 3.0 that the site’s server temporarily melted down, you’d expect the new release would have some impressive improvements over its predecessor. The stability and performance tweaks are there, especially in the Windows and Linux versions, but most of them aren’t the flashy sort of features that convince people to upgrade.

…

Other noticeable changes in the new version of OpenOffice include some minor, but welcome, user interface enhancements, such as a much cleaner icon set, better zoom tools and a new start-up launcher that offers quick access to templates and previously opened documents. The Windows version even offers a shortcut icon which will take you directly to the launcher screen.

This is the best bad news they could hope for.

• Webmonkey
• OpenOffice.org

Groklaw reports that 6 countries have written an open letter to the ISO saying that the refusal to accept the appeal on OOXML reflects poorly on the ISO.

There is an unexpected reaction from major government IT agencies in six countries condemning the ISO/IEC refusal to act on the four appeals against OOXML, which they say “reflects poorly” on ISO/IEC. They have signed and sent an open letter to ISO, which I’ll show you in full. The countries represented are South Africa, Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Cuba. Here’s a paragraph to give you a taste:

Given the organisation’s inability to follow its own rules we are no longer confident that ISO/IEC will be capable of transforming itself into the open and vendor-neutral standards setting organisation which is such an urgent requirement. What is now clear is that we will have to, albeit reluctantly, re-evaluate our assessment of ISO/IEC, particularly in its relevance to our various national government interoperability frameworks. Whereas in the past it has been assumed that an ISO/IEC standard should automatically be considered for use within government, clearly this position no longer stands.

How in the world can ISO/IEC claim that the OOXML approval has not been damaging to ISO/IEC’s reputation now? Have you ever heard of such a thing?

Three of the signatories, South Africa, Brazil, and Venezuela, submitted appeals that were denied.

This is very good news.  These probably aren’t the most powerful countries in the ISO, but I don’t think they can take this backlash lightly.

• Groklaw

Pamela Jones exposes the ISO appeal process, which shows that regardless of what the press release said, the final decision has not been made about the appeals on OOXML.

I’ve been puzzling over something in the ISO press release announcing that the four appeals against OOXML as an ISO standard, from Brazil, India, South Africa and Venezuela, would go no further. In the press release, it said this:

According to the ISO/IEC rules, DIS 29500 can now proceed to publication as an ISO/IEC International Standard. This is expected to take place within the next few weeks on completion of final processing of the document, and subject to no further appeals against the decision.

Wait a second. What’s that “subject to no further appeals against the decision” part? What rules would those be? When I read the JTC1 Directives, Edition 5, Version 3.0 [PDF], I see in the section on appeals another step you can take if the TMB/SMB decide not to proceed with your appeal, which is what just happened:

11.4 Appeal Against a Decision of the TMB/SMBsAn appeal against a decision of the TMB/SMB shall be submitted to the Secretaries-General with full documentation on all stages of the case.

The Secretaries-General shall refer the appeal together with their comments to the members of the Councils within one month after receipt of the appeal.

The Councils shall make their decision within three months.

So, ask your lawyer, but I read that as saying a denial by the TMB/SMB is *not* necessarily the last word, no matter what the press release said, if an NB wishes to bring the appeal to the next level, which would be to the “Secretaries-General” and “the Council”.

Go PJ. OK, so we have another chance. I hope this time it goes better.

• Groklaw

The ISO did not give the two thirds approval needed for the appeals from various countries.  The concerns go undressed and OOXML marches on.

ISO initially approved OOXML in April following a highly controversial fast-track review process. The decision was condemned by national standards bodies from four countries. These governments attempted to appeal the approval, citing procedural irregularities during the ballot resolution meeting and technical flaws in the standard itself.

A technical management board that was assembled to assess the complaints has now formally rejected the appeals. The board has sided with ISO’s leadership, which has argued that the OOXML process was executed in conformance with the will and expectations of a majority of the participants.

“None of the appeals from Brazil, India, South Africa and Venezuela received the support for further processing of two-thirds of the members of the ISO Technical Management Board and IEC Standardization Management Board, as required by ISO/IEC rules governing the work of their joint technical committee ISO/IEC JTC 1,” said ISO in a statement.

Shoot…and I was optimistic about the appeal too.  If the ISO doesn’t address these concerns, trouble could be abrewin’.

• Ars Technica

At a Red Hat panel, Microsoft representative Stuart McKee stated that ODF won the format battle.

“ODF has clearly won,” said Stuart McKee, referring to Microsoft’s recent announcement that it would begin natively supporting ODF in Office next year and join the technical committee overseeing the next version of the format.

Wait, MS participating in maintaining ODF?  That sounds kind of scary.  I guess we should encourage their participation, but it’s still scary.

• The Standard
• Slashdot

Microsoft Office 2007 will support ODF in full, but not fully implement OOXML. Office 2007 will also support PDF 1.1, PDF/A, and Microsoft’s competing fixed-text format, called XML Paper Specification.

In a surprise move, the company also announced that it intends to participate in the OASIS ODF working group and the corresponding ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 Subcommittee 34 working groups for ODF, as well as the ISO Technical Committee 171 working group for PDF, said Doug Mahugh, senior product manager for Microsoft Office.

…

However, the company is not quick to embrace its own creation. Mahugh stated that Microsoft would not implement the final ISO version of OOXML until Office 14 ships at an unstated date in the future. This variant of OOXML was designated ISO/IEC 29500 at the time it was certified as an ISO International standard in April.

I wonder how long it will take them to implement the enormous spec.

• SDTimes
• Consortium Info
• Slashdot

Update: Check out this analysis from Groklaw.