News

Microsoft Will Submit Office Schemas To Standards Body

In the midst of the acrimonious debate regarding whether Microsoft’s Office Open XML file format is really open or is instead proprietary, the company will submit its schemas to an important European international standards organization.

Microsoft announced Monday that it – along with co-sponsors that include Apple, Barclays Capital, BP, the British Library, Intel Corp., NextPage Inc., and Toshiba – plans to submit the schemas to Ecma International. That is the same organization to which Microsoft previously submitted ECMAScript, C#, and the Common Language Infrastructure.

Based in Geneva, Switzerland, Ecma was founded in 1961 as the European Computer Manufacturers’ Association. It changed its name in 1994 as its role evolved into a full-blown standards organization to Ecma International, according to information on the group’s site. If Microsoft can get its Office schemas accepted as an Ecma standard, the company plans to submit it as a standard with the International Organization for Standardization.

Microsoft has already made its Office XML schemas available for use on a royalty-free basis but has not relinquished ownership of the intellectual property rights in them. However, there has been a lot of angst in some quarters because Microsoft is not placing the schemas fully in the public domain.

By contrast, critics say, Adobe’s Portable Document Format supports the OASIS OpenDocument format. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts announced its final proposal in late August that, after January 2007, will only allow applications created by workers in the state’s executive branch that save documents in OpenDocument format, but not Microsoft’s XML schemas due to legal questions regarding the format’s openness.

About the Author

Stuart J. Johnston has covered technology, especially Microsoft, since February 1988 for InfoWorld, Computerworld, Information Week, and PC World, as well as for Enterprise Developer, XML & Web Services, and .NET magazines.

Featured

  • Microsoft Appoints Althoff as New CEO for Commercial Business

    Microsoft CEO and chairman Satya Nadella on Wednesday announced the promotion of Judson Althoff to CEO of the company's commercial business, presenting the move as a response to the dramatic industrywide shifts caused by AI.

  • Broadcom Revamps VMware Partner Program Again

    Broadcom recently announced a significant update regarding its VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP) program, coinciding with the release of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0, a key component in Broadcom’s private cloud strategy.

  • Closeup of the new Copilot keyboard key

    Microsoft Updates Copilot To Add Context-Sensitive Agents to Teams, SharePoint

    Microsoft has rolled out a new public preview for collaborative "always on" agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, bringing enhanced, context-aware tools into Teams channels, meetings, SharePoint sites, Planner workstreams and Viva Engage communities.

  • Windows 365 Cloud Apps Now Available for Public Preview

    Microsoft announced this week that Windows 365 Cloud Apps are now available for public preview. This aims to allow IT administrators to stream individual Windows applications from the cloud, removing the need to assign Cloud PCs to every user.