Big Blue Joins Forces with OpenOffice.org

IBM's commitment to ODF might actually represent a greater blow to Microsoft's ambitions than Redmond's recent defeat in an ISO vote that would have put Open XML on the fast track for becoming an international standard for documents. But IDC's Pers Anderson said he believes Microsoft's ISO setback is minor with respect to the private sector.

IBM said it is joining the OpenOffice.org community to collaborate on software development for the Open Document Format (ODF), an ISO standard that governs the creation, storage, and exchange of documents.

Mike Rhodin, general manager of IBM's Lotus division, said IBM expects the collaborative effort to "provide tangible benefits to users of OpenOffice.org technology around the world" through the creation of "an even broader range of ODF-supporting applications and solutions." He said that by leveraging OpenOffice technology in its own software products, IBM hopes "to deliver innovative value to users of IBM products and services."

OpenOffice.org marketing project lead John McCreesh welcomed IBM's future commitment to package and distribute new works that leverage the OpenOffice.org technology supporting ODF. "ODF is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the I.T. industry to unify round a standard, and deliver lasting benefit to users of desktop technology," McCreesh said.

Improving Accessibility

Initially, IBM will be contributing the code that it has been developing as part of its Lotus Notes software product, which includes accessibility enhancements that just might help OpenOffice.org reach parity with what rival Microsoft currently offers handicapped workers through its Office business productivity suite.

Accessibility is still a huge issue, especially with governments, noted Gartner Client Computing vice president Michael Silver. "There were a lot of eyes on accessibility during the development of OpenOffice.org version 2 and the improvements were big, but not sufficient for many," Silver explained.

Silver said he thinks IBM should have become an official part of the OpenOffice effort long before now. Still, "having IBM's help with this will surely help OpenOffice.org," he said.

Rhodin indicated that, over the long haul, IBM would be dedicating software engineering resources that would be making ongoing contributions to the feature richness and code quality of the ODF-based productivity suite. The collaboration effort might be just what OpenOffice.org needs to encourage more organizations worldwide to embrace its ODF-based technology.

Emphasis on Pragmatic Issues
"ODF has been an ISO standard for some time now, but adoption is still very slow," said IDC Nordic Group managing director Per Anderson. "There are a limited number of companies and organizations looking at ODF, and most of them are just considering it."

By contrast, IDC's latest survey shows that several companies and organizations are actively implementing Microsoft's competing Open XML format, particularly in Europe. "Our recent survey shows that commercial companies put more emphasis on pragmatic issues like long-term document viability and backwards compatibility rather then whether the standard is a formal open standard," Anderson explained.

IBM's commitment to ODF might actually represent a greater blow to Microsoft's ambitions than its recent defeat at the ISO in a vote that would have put Open XML on the fast track for becoming an international standard for documents.

Anderson said he believes the ISO setback is minor with respect to the private sector. "It could be slightly more significant in the public sector, but this will be dependent on the ISO's next voting round," Anderson explained.

Nevertheless, a considerable number of obstacles to ODF's adoption still need to be addressed. "What will help will be the potential results, not just having the IBM name in the mix," Silver said.