After nearly 14 months of discussion, debate and controversies surrounding them, the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has finally declared that Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML) file format has received the necessary number of votes for approval as an ISO/IEC international standard.
There has, perhaps, never been a more intense global industry debate over standards since OOXML is backed by Apple, Novell, and closer home by Wipro, Infosys, TCS, and Nasscom.
The rival Open Document Format or ODF is supported by IBM, Sun Microsystems, Red Hat, Google, and in India, by the Department of Information Technology (DIT), National Informatics Centre (NIC), CDAC, IIT-Bombay and IIM-Ahmedabad.
ISO approval means government business for Microsoft since governments worldwide, including India, prefer standards that are ratified from bodies such as the ISO.
States such as Delhi, Kerala and others from the North-East are heavy adopters of ODF file formats which are open and free (excluding maintenance and support).
“With 86 per cent of voting national bodies supporting ratification, there is overwhelming support for Open XML. This outcome is a clear win for the customers, technology providers and governments that want to choose the format that best meets their needs and have a voice in the evolution of this widely adopted standard,” said Tom Robertson, general manager of Interoperability and Standards at Microsoft, in a press statement.
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