The Hurler On The Ditch

With government records, reports and documents increasingly being created and stored in digital form, there is a software threat to electronic access to government information and archives. The problem is that public information can be locked in proprietary software whose document formats become obsolete or cannot be read by people using software from another company.

To cope with the problem, 30 companies, trade groups, academic institutions and professional organizations are announcing today the formation of the OpenDocument Format Alliance, which will promote the adoption of open technology standards by governments...

...Microsoft supports another open standard for documents, called OpenXML Document Format. In Office 2007, which Microsoft will ship in the second half of the year, OpenXML will be the default format for saving documents instead of Microsoft's proprietary formats, said Alan Yates of the company's Office division.

The OpenXML format is supported by Intel, Apple, Toshiba, BP and the British Library, among others, Mr. Yates said. Microsoft submitted OpenXML to Ecma International, a standards body in Geneva, last year.