Some months ago we wrote about Wikipedia's embrace of OpenDocument format. This actually had Boycott Novell placed at the front page of OpenOffice.org for quite a long time. Here comes what seems like yet another encouraging sign from those who manage literature digitally.
Many people have no access to most published books. European researchers are trying to remedy this by adapting new technologies to provide accessibility on demand for the visually impaired.
[...]
The partners from the project are also trying to set up a new entity that will use the Open Document Format to provide publishers with the ability to electronically plug in to the system and get their books automatically formatted for accessibility.
With a national standards body criticizing the ISO's process for approving OOXML, will Microsoft's quest for standards status survive?
The Office update will also bring support for Uniform Office Format (UOF), the national document file format standard used in China, Microsoft says.
Historically, Microsoft has eschewed interoperability — developers of rival office suites, such as OpenOffice.org, have had to decipher Microsoft’s proprietary file formats to support them in their own products.
In recent years, though, Microsoft has come under growing pressure, from regulators and customers (especially governments), to be less hostile to open standards. The jury is still out about whether it is prepared to embrace open standards fully, or whether it will merely pay lip service to the idea, while working behind the scenes to poison and subvert those standards.
Comments
Uncle_Sam
2008-05-29 17:56:34
http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord
Please do it !!!!!! We need to break the record. Should be a awesome PR