D-Day approaches for Open XML standards bid

A standards committee will next week begin the next stage of the process that could see Microsoft’s new Open XML formats formally adopted as a global standard – or not.

A vote by standards bodies from 87 countries last September went against the immediate adoption of Open XML as an ISO standard. This gave an immediate boost to the Open Document Format (ODF), which is already an ISO standard, but it did not rule out the Microsoft formats.

The ISO process went on to a second stage in which objections to Open XML, which had to be set down in writing by those voting no, were sent back to Microsoft to see if the problems could be resolved.

Proposed amendments to the Open XML specification, which runs to 6000 pages, were circulated to the voting organisations last month and a committee will spend five days from Monday trying to agree a final specification which will be put to a new vote over the coming month.

The result should be known by the end of March and there seems no indication at this stage which way it will go.

Jason Matusow, senior director of interoperability at Microsoft, said that even if it goes against Open XML the standards process will not have been a waste of time. “It has actually produced a far better specification,” he said.