Open Malaysia

Yesterdays news on Microsoft's vote in supporting ODF as an American National Standard is certainly a relief to us all. We were always given the impression by Microsoft representatives that Microsoft supports Open Standards worldwide. Just last year, April 2006, in my first meeting at SIRIM, I was happy to read Microsoft's support for ODF for the ISO process in voting it in as an International Standard. The statement by the Microsoft Malaysia representative then read:

"Microsoft is one of the biggest supporters of standards and interoperability to the extent that its products are considered to be the most interoperable. ... Consistent with our stand, Microsoft has no objections to the submission of the ODF standards ..."

Of course there were some conditions attached to this "support", which I highlighted in the post, but I was encouraged that Microsoft then recognised Open Standards and its utility to consumers to provide choice and interoperability.

However when ODF was proposed to be a National Standard in Malaysia, I was troubled and surprised that Microsoft led a relentless campaign in delaying this mere adoption process. They were the sole objectors at TC4, continually raising concerns many months after the 3 month window for Public Comments closed.

That is why yesterday's news is a relief. We now know that Microsoft HQ supports ODF as a National Standards for example in the United States of America. If Redmond is OK with ODF as a National Standard for America, then surely Petronas Twin Tower 2, Level 29 would be OK with ODF as a Malaysian Standard?

The terms are after all the same; a non mandatory, voluntary and non-exclusive national standard in accordance with the WTO directives.

We will see what will come of it the next few days.

Did Microsoft's vote count at ANSI? I would not know. However judging the worldwide support for ODF, and unanimous support within committees I would hazard a guess by saying "no". It is very hard to justify voting against a vendor neutral, inclusive, consensus based, with existing multiple implementations and  internationally ratified open standard such as ODF.

One negative vote by Microsoft wouldn't have made a difference at ANSI. Strategically it would not have been a good choice either; it would also hurt its reputation as a "multiple standards friendly" corporation and therefore further reduce the chances of MSOOXML through the ISO process.

However Microsoft's positive vote will make a difference in the Malaysian context, to which I am wholly appreciative. Hopefully Microsoft Malaysia will show its support for ODF as Microsoft US has done.

Yesterday's press release was strangely entitled "Microsoft Votes for Choice."  If consumer choice is important to Microsoft, they should implement ODF as a natively supported file format for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations. It is choice in applications is important to users rather than choice in standards. In my previous entry "The Choice to Choose" I elaborated:

History is repeating itself, with the case where two competing standards exist. The current Blue-Ray and HD format fiasco is evidently bad for the consumer, and the industry. The marketplace will delay migrations, and prefer a wait and see approach. This hurts the manufacturers as it delays revenues, causes opportunity costs and subsequent slowdown of innovation.

With the case of documents formats, it would be extremely simple to avoid this confusion. If Microsoft adopts ODF, which they are completely free to do so, they can compete with the free OpenOffice.org office suite and other ODF-based applications through real product innovation and value. Malaysian IT users benefit with the increased choice they have in purchasing the applications and the interoperability between the different vendors.

So will Microsoft leverage ODF to be more interoperable and provide real choice to the consumer? Will Microsoft Malaysia be more cooperative in making the standardisation process more efficient? Only time can tell.

yk