Microsoft plans to submit Office 12 formats to ECMA

According to a report at PC World, Microsoft is planning to submit the XML formats it will use in Office 12 to the European Computer Manufacturer's Association (ECMA) for approval. PCWorld mentions tha Massachusetts ODF controversy and quotes Alan Yates of Microsoft: "We have a few barriers [with government contracts]," says Alan Yates, general manager for Microsoft Office. "It will give governments more long-term confidence." Yates was the man who wrote Microsoft's initial response to Massachusetts' new policy.

The Financial Times has an article that frames the move as a response to a "concern raised by the European Union executive body." The article, by Maija Palmer, does not cite any sources for its information.

Microsoft now has a press release up.

Andy Updegrove has a quick summary and brief analysis up at Consortiuminfo.org. The interesting question that he asks is: "[I]f Microsoft is willing to open its formats and to come up with the necessary converters to allow old documents to be upgraded, why not just support ODF?"

I suspect that the answer is that Microsoft will not actually go all the way without adding a restriction that prevents programs like OpenOffice from using their formats. They have already said that they will release the formats under the same liberal license as their Office 2003 Reference Schema; they just don't allow sublicensing of the royalty-free license that they grant, which excludes any GPL program from using the formats.

If nothing else, it will be entertaining to see how they pull this off. As Andy Updegrove points out, both Microsoft and the ODF folks are claiming the support of Apple and Intel now.

Nothing from the Between The Lines blog at ZDNet yet.