October 24, 2005
Commentary - The Boston Software Party
:Massachusetts has always been a national innovator when it comes to causing revolutions in the name of economic freedoms. Most famously, on December 16,1773, approximately 60 native Bostonians raided three ships that carried tea to protest British taxation of the American colonies in what is now known as the Boston Tea Party. Last month, the government of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts passed a law mandating that all government digital documents use a format known as the OpenDocument Format (short for Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) Open Document Format for Office Applications) instead of the more widely used Microsoft formats, which could touch off a new revolution when it comes to technology.
Massachusetts decided that it was in the best interest of the state to use a file format that is open for all vendors, software companies, and users to implement as they desire. Their hope is that by using the OpenDocument Format that they will be able to switch to any software they desire without fear of vendor lock-in. Microsoft had protested Massachusetts’ decision. For years, Microsoft has been accused of using formats that only their software worked with to make sure that no one could use any software other than Microsoft Office. At the very least, the Open Document Format is not currently in Office products and is not slated in the next Microsoft Office release.
The decision is more obviously a threat in light of this past week’s release of OpenOffice.org 2, an open source alternative to Microsoft Office that does a decent job of opening Office files. This is the program that Massachusetts will use and that many developing nations (Brazil and India) are looking at implementing. (By the way, I have been using beta versions of this software since December. I highly recommend you take a look at this free alternative to MS Office.)
This end of the lock-down has led commentators to speculate that Microsoft Office’s dominance is over. If governments begin to demand OpenDocument Format, it could become the standard file accepted everywhere, just as Microsoft Office documents have become. The lock will be broken. And therefore Microsoft Office’s use will decline.
It does not have to be this way. There is nothing stopping Microsoft from implementing the OpenDocument Format in Microsoft Office. The format is documented and open. Anyone can use it. If Microsoft were to include OpenDocument Format by default, all users would be able to edit the same documents, even if they were using different programs. The consumer would win. And the companies that produce the software would only win if they had the best product. Here Microsoft would do well. They have a huge research and development team. For their next version of Office next year, they are proposing a radical new interface that could mean huge time savings for those that purchase it. They often make the best product for the basic computer user (but by no means always) in markets with strong competition. There is no reason, given an equal playing field of one file format, that the best product would not win. And that is even better news for consumers.
But no matter what Microsoft decides and what competition is spurred by the OpenDocument format and OpenOffice.org, by moving to a format that is open, you will not be forced along a company’s upgrade path if you do not want to be. Instead, the information is yours. It makes a ton of sense to end vendor lock-in and chose a format that you can control. Follow Massachusetts’ path and be a part of another important revolution.
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