Christian Einfeldtextra wrote:
Although there are a few procedural red-tape type things left to do -
OpenDocument is guarteeneed ISO standard status as ISO 26300. This likely
means Microsoft's so-called Open XML format will be rejected. This is huge
news for open standards and for anyone who wants to actually own their
data..
I agree that it's huge news. A very fine development indeed!
However... I'm not sure if ISO standards are exclusive. I know IETF will
often have more than one standard for doing basically the same thing.
Think POP3 vs IMAP for email.
The other caveat is that being declared a standard does not
automatically imply success. For instance, the ISO has a set of
standards for networking called the OSI model. It divides the network
stack into layers of functionality; physical, data link, network, etc.
up to the application layer (like an email program or a browser). The
competing standard is the Internet Protocol developed by the US DOD.
Despite the fact that the OSI model is complete, has actual working
implementations of the protocols, and is widely taught as a reference
model, basically only one of the protocols is actually used much. The
Internet Protocol won out simply by actually being used in industry.
So while I applaud the achievement of standard status, there's still a
lot of work ahead.
--
Rod
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