17 February 2007

Why this blog ?

The last few months I have become increasingly annoyed by the disinformation spread about the office formats Office Open XML (OOXML) and OpenDocument (ODF). Especially the enormous amount of poor information about Office Open XML is staggering so I guess a bit of the focus will be on providing information on OOXML.
In what seems to have become format war between IBM, Sun and FOSS vs Microsoft I will try to add that is what I think is a more moderate view on what is really going on with the formats.

In this blog I will try to write about some of the issues that I have come across in the information campaigns about the formats leading up to the standardisation of the Office document formats by ISO.

Is the information I provide biased ?
Yes, it probably will be a bit. At the moment especially OOXML received a lot of unjust criticism and I will certainly try to give a more positive look on OOXML than what is written by the people from IBM and Sun.

The Wraith

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Are you blogging on behlaf of Microsoft? Why not use your /real/ name? Microsoft has already paid people to edit Wikipedia's entry on OOXML, so astroturfing would not surprise me.

Microsoft's 'Open' Debate Is Nothing of the Kind

,----[ Quote ]
| Cutting Through the FUD
|
| Behind Microsoft's rhetoric and FUD there is a clear effort to advocate
| proprietary interfaces that protect the monopoly.
|
| [...]
|
| Microsoft's contention about "choice" is hallow. This is the same
| company that used marketing about choice to combat Apple's iPod
| and iTunes in 2004 and 2005. Strange, since kicking loose its
| PlaysForSure partners and releasing Zune and the Zune Marketplace,
| Microsoft is no longer talking about choice--even though its
| directional change limits the choice previously advocated about
| music services and devices. Microsoft's "choice" included
| a proprietary interface, Windows Media Audio, tied to its
| major monopoly product.
`----

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/business_applications/microsofts_open_debate_is_nothing_of_the_kind.html?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535
http://tinyurl.com/2s3ahc

The Wraith said...

No, I'm not blogging on behalf of MS.
So if you or anyone else has a good financial offer for me I would be happy to write more or even remove the blog alltogether.

I don't use my real name because my work can require me to do regular job interviews (secondment)and I don't want to complicate that by publicising on the internet.

So we differ on the debate whether or not OOXML is open ? Fine. That is one of the reasons I started the blog. I found the current discussion to be very one sided. Happy reading another side of the discussion.

Anonymous said...

Roy, have you made similar comments about "Pamela Jones's" Groklaw site? If not, you're an example of the selective one-sidedness this person is responding to.

And what in the world does the Wikipedia thing have to do with anonymity? The only reason you're even aware of that situation is because the people involved told you all about it, under their own names. More selective one-sidedness, it appears.