Microsoft Takes Action to Further Open Office XML Formats, Massachusetts Warms

Last week Microsoft announced that it will submit the file format technology behind its Office XML formats to standards body Ecma International, and take actions to make the technology an international standard.

From Microsoft: "With Office document formats available as an open standard, customers will have even more confidence in their ability to store and manage data for the long term, with many more vendors and tools from which they can choose. The move will benefit the broader software ecosystem because software and services vendors worldwide will be able to more easily build compelling solutions that interoperate across a broad spectrum of technologies."

In a statement the next day Massachusetts Administration and Finance Secretary Tom Trimarc said, "The Commonwealth is very pleased with Microsoft's progress in creating an open document format. If Microsoft follows through as planned, we are optimistic that Office Open XML will meet our new standards for acceptable open formats."

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