Microsoft Shifts Another Gear in Standards
Oh, how the proprietary have fallen. Well, not fallen really, but certainly
changed. Microsoft is making noises about openness and collaboration again,
this time with a couple of standards-oriented initiatives.
Redmond said this week that it'll work on a Web services interface with IBM
and EMC, and it's also joining a standards group called the Object Management
Group. (OK, so we didn't know what that was, either -- but this
story told us).
Of course, there will always be healthy and probably justified skepticism about
just how open Microsoft wants to be and what its true motives are for joining
these efforts (as in, to take them over completely). But we can't fault Redmond
for at least showing signs of coming out of its proprietary shell. And if this
new spirit of glasnost actually leads to technological advancements of
some sort -- hey, all the better!
Posted by Lee Pender on September 11, 2008