Published: January 18, 2008; last updated July 10, 2008

Microsoft offers this library of materials to help government officials and other decision makers understand the implications of the Ecma Office Open XML file formats for citizens, businesses, and governments in areas such as economic growth and pro-innovation policies.

Fact sheets and issue backgrounders

The documents in this section provide clear and concise treatments of the policy issues involved with the Open XML file formats.

• Microsoft Expanding Support for Formats in Microsoft Office (May 2008)
• ISO/IEC DIS 29500 receives necessary votes for approval as an International Standard (April 2008)
• The Global Community Embraces Open XML: XPS | PDF
• ISO/IEC Open XML Quotes: XPS | PDF
• Your Documents, Your Choice: Open XML, A Policy Guide: XPS | PDF
• Ecma International and the Adoption of Open XML as an Open Standard: XPS | PDF
• The Importance of Document Format Choice in Government: XPS | PDF
• Benefits of Open XML File Formats in Preserving Historical Documents: XPS | PDF
• Open XML-ODF Translator: XPS | PDF
• There are No IPR Issues with Open XML: XPS | PDF
• Open XML IPR – There are No Gaps to Mind (Response to ODF Alliance Mind the Gaps): XPS | PDF
• Open XML and ODF Adoption: Separating Fact From Fiction: XPS | PDF
• Open XML: An Open Standard Driving Interoperability, Competition, Choice, and Innovation: XPS | PDF
• An Open Letter from Chris Capossela, Senior VP, Microsoft Office (March 2008)
• Interoperability, Choice, and Open XML (Open letter authored by Tom Robertson and Jean Paoli; February, 2007)
• The Making of an Open Standard (Open letter authored by Tom Robertson and Jean Paoli; August, 2007)
• Enabling Open Innovation and Interoperability: Recommendations for Policy-Makers (Nicos Tsilas, United Nations University, Macau; November, 2007)

Independent research studies

Research conducted by institutions such as The Berkman Center at Harvard Law School demonstrates the importance of the discussion of the Open XML file formats for government policies that support innovation, interoperability, and economic growth.

• The Economic Impact of IT, Software, and the Microsoft Ecosystem on the Global Economy (IDC, 2007): XPS | PDF
  Overview of the Global Economic Footprint of Microsoft and the Microsoft Business Model.
• When and How ICT Interoperability Drives Innovation (Harvard Berkman and St Gallen, 2007): XPS | PDF
  Overview of interoperability in ICT, including definition, many ways it can be accomplished and role of government.
• The Government at the Standards Bazaar (Stacy Baird, Stanford Law and Policy Review, 2007): XPS | PDF
  Academic paper providing an overview and model for government's role in standard both as purchaser of IT and policymaker.
• The Power of Choice: Massachusetts Wisely Embraces Multiple Document Format Standards To Drive Greater Competition and Innovation (The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, Buono & Sieverding; February, 2008)
• What’s Up, .DOC? ODF, OOXML, and the Revolutionary Implications of XML in Productivity Applications (The Burton Group, 2008)
  Independent analyst overview and comparison of ODF, Open XML, and related World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards, and projected implications for future productivity applications.
• Baker & McKenzie legal overview of Standardization and Licensing of Microsoft’s Office Open XML File Formats (Baker & McKenzie London Information Technology Practice; January, 2008)

Unless otherwise noted or accompanied by separate terms, the above documents are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

The information contained in the above documents represents the information available at the time these documents were posted. The documents are for informational purposes only. Unless otherwise noted all documents are © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

  Notes  

• To view in PDF format, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader
• To view in XPS format, you will need an XPS viewer.

 Top of Page