14 DAY TRIAL // Following the intense efforts to establish the Open XML file format as an international standard, and to directly rival OpenOffice's Open Document Format, Microsoft has debuted an initiative designed to take the XML Paper Specification (XPS) through the same process and offer an alternative to Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF). As was the case with Open XML, Microsoft will enjoy the support of Ecma, which has already set up a Technical Committee to push XPS. If both Open XML and XPS standards will be ratified by ISO then Microsoft will deliver open standards diversity where general consensus as opposed to multiple solutions should be the rule, critics say.
"The goal of the Technical Committee is to produce a formal standard for office productivity applications within the Ecma International standards process which is fully compatible with the Office Open XML Formats. The aim is to enable the implementation of the Office Open XML Formats by a wide set of tools and platforms in order to foster interoperability across office productivity applications and with line-of-business systems. The Technical Committee will also be responsible for the ongoing maintenance and evolution of the standard," reads a fragment of the TC46 - XML Paper Specification (XPS).
With Windows Vista and the Office 2007 System intimately connected with Open XML and XPS. Microsoft will undoubtedly leverage its two main cash cows and the associated user base in order to standardize Open XML and XPS. While Microsoft has revealed that it is committed to open standards, the relation between the Redmond company's proprietary file formats and its products raise inevitable questions over the continuation of monopolistic practices. Microsoft is not only gunning after ODF and PDF but also JPEG with HD Photo, a format supported natively by Vista.
"Microsoft was invited to be part of the original ODF Technical Committee in OASIS, and chose to stand aside. That committee tried to do its best to make the standard work well with Office, but was naturally limited in that endeavor by Microsoft's unwillingness to cooperate. This, of course, made it easier for Microsoft to later claim a need for OOXML to be adopted as a standard, in order to "better serve its customers." The refusal by an incumbent to participate in an open standards process is certainly its right, but it is hardly conduct that should be rewarded by a global standards body charged with watching out for the best interests of all. If OOXML, and now Microsoft XML Paper Specification, each sail through Ecma and are then adopted by ISO/IEC JTC1, then I think that we might as well declare "game over" for open standards," commented Andrew Updegrove, open-standards advocate.