[Sigia-l] Share and share alike

[Listera]

OK, I admit it upfront, this is about standards. (But if you are living
anywhere in the Northeast US or Southern Europe in this frigid weather what
else are you going to do! :-)

A significant chunk of the world's enterprise info/data is locked up in
Microsoft Office format. It's locked up in the sense that it can't be fully
integrated with wider non-Office/non-MS server workflows for intranet or web
applications.

Some people thought this would change when MS broadly adopted XML
input/output for its Office products. In other words, you'd be finally able
to dump your data out of Office in XML and any other app that can parse XML
would be able to read it back in. You could thus share the data and
incorporate it in much wider and varied workflows. Finally having reached a
"standard" at the file format level for free exchange of data, applications
would now be in a position to compete at the implementation/workflow/process
level, as I've been preaching here. Then, I wouldn't care what "standard" a
corporation has adopted internally at the application level.

Some of us lauded Microsoft's adoption of XML but were incredulous that MS
would actually allow third parties to make full use of their hitherto
proprietary formats. Well, the other shoe finally dropped:

"Microsoft has applied for patents that could prevent competing applications
from processing documents created with the latest version of the software
giant's Office program."

Microsoft seeks XML-related patents
<http://news.com.com/2100-1013_3-5146581.html?tag=nefd_top>

Some things in life never change. :-)

----
Ziya

Architecture is politics.