Frankly Speaking: Microsoft's Cynicism

Computerworld - I dont mind a little cynicism  its a natural and only mildly toxic byproduct of paying attention. So last week, when Microsofts Office Open XML file format was rejected as an international standard, I wasnt bothered that Microsoft said it was extremely delighted by the result.

Some observers called that phrase spin. Me, I trust it was just ordinary Microsoft cynicism.

Or is it optimism? Sure, Microsofts proposed standard was rejected, which means some organizations  especially governments  wont want to use OOXML as their document standard.

But OOXML didnt lose by a lot, right? And in February, Microsoft will get one final chance to fix up the problems and get OOXML OKd. And then we can all happily use it, because it will be a formal international standard  right?

Hold that thought.

Now consider this from Brian Jones, a Microsoft manager who has worked on OOXML for six years. In July, Jones was asked on his blog whether Microsoft would actually commit to conform to an officially standardized OOXML. His response:

Its hard for Microsoft to commit to what comes out of Ecma [the European standards group that has already OKd OOXML] in the coming years, because we dont know what direction they will take the formats. Well of course stay active and propose changes based on where we want to go with Office 14. At the end of the day, though, the other Ecma members could decide to take the spec in a completely different direction. ... Since its not guaranteed, it would be hard for us to make any sort of official statement.

Now thats cynical. After all this work to make OOXML a formal, independent standard  a standard created and promoted by Microsoft, remember  Microsoft wont agree to follow it.

Sorta puts Microsofts giddy public optimism in perspective, doesnt it?

To at least some people at Microsoft, this isnt about meeting the needs of customers who want a stable, solid, vendor-neutral format for storing and managing documents. Its just another skirmish with the open-source crowd and rivals like IBM, and all that matters is winning.

What a waste. And what a betrayal of trust.

Its unfortunate. Most users of Microsoft Office dont care about this whole standards brouhaha  they just use Office because its Office.

But to organizations that need a well-defined, XML-based format to manage huge numbers of documents that may be archived for decades, this is important.

These customers want a standard that Microsoft will promise to use  even if its not convenient for the companys plans.