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Microsoft's Open Format Criticized In China
by Winter Casey
As Microsoft awaits a decision in coming months from the International Standards Organization on whether it will approve the company's Open XML format, it also is facing opposition in China and from supporters of a competing format known as the Open Document Format.
Chinese academics, software developers and industry associations gathered in Beijing on Monday to speak out against Microsoft's Open XML, according to a Chinese news report.
"Microsoft's move to make its [Open XML] format the international standard is an extension of its goal to maintain its monopoly in the world's software market," said Ni Guangnan, an academic from the Chinese Academy of Engineering. "We are calling on the [Chinese] government to veto the [Open XML] format at the [ISO]."
The Open XML critics argued that Microsoft has a monopoly on how digital files are coded. According to China Daily, Microsoft's document formats -- including .doc, .xls and .ppt -- have been widely used worldwide since the 1990s. But Microsoft's success has created a barrier for other software companies, the critics claimed.
Last year, the standards body Ecma International approved Microsoft Office Open XML. Currently, the only ISO-approved open-file format is ODF, which is promoted by the ODF Alliance with members that include IBM and Sun Microsystems.
Though sources said the official ISO ballot closure for voting on whether to approve Open XML is Sept. 2, a Microsoft spokeswoman said "the final outcome of the process is not likely to be known for several months, until the technical comments have been reviewed and reconciled."
Marino Marcich, managing director of the ODF Alliance, said his group is encouraging national standards bodies to vote against Open XML becoming an ISO-approved standard.
Both ODF and Open XML have been called emerging open document standards. An open standard is said to be accessible to everyone free of charge without restrictions, but there is agreed-upon definition of "openness."
Marcich has said in the past that the world does not need two standards that basically do the same thing. He said that Open XML is currently "not an open format because it does not meet the general test of openness." He also has said that Open XML is not as open as ODF because the standard is mainly controlled by Microsoft.
Attention to the standards has increased as more organizations around the world express interest in achieving document processing interoperability and using open formats to create digital archives. Some governments have considered mandating preferences for open standards.
Morgan Reed, executive director for the Association for Competitive Technology, which includes Microsoft as a member, has said IBM and other companies have attempted to influence governments to embrace ODF but ignore Microsoft's open standard.
This week China Daily reported that Open XML -- unlike the ODF standard and China's Unified Office Document Format national standard -- must be run on a Windows platform and contains many proprietary technologies that can only be fully supported by using Microsoft's products.
According to the Chinese government's authorized news portal site, Ni penned an article July 17 arguing that Microsoft's monopoly in the field of document software will be broken if China's standard successfully merges with ODF as planned and the new format is approved as an international standard.
China plans to promote its homegrown document format standard across the country beginning in September, according to the news site. Marcich said his group supports the harmonization of ODF with the Chinese home-grown standard.
A Microsoft spokeswoman said in an e-mail that "customers have told us their data needs can't be addressed by a one-format-fits-all approach. Everyone wants to use their data in slightly different ways. That's why together with the [ODF] translators and other add-ins that can be downloaded easily, we are enabling customers to pick from whatever format they want to use with their Office documents -- whether it's ODF, Open XML, PDF, or new standards" such as China's standard.
Microsoft is committed to interoperability between Microsoft Office and the emerging Chinese standard document formats. The company also has collaborated with others in China to create translation tools between China's emerging standard and Open XML, the Microsoft spokeswoman said.
Zimbabwe Passes Phone, E-mail Snooping Law
On Friday, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe signed into law a communications law that enables his government to intercept phone calls, e-mails and faxes with the goal of protecting national security, according to the international media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders.
"The promulgation of this law is further evidence of Mugabe's desire to keep news and information under close control," the organization said in a statement.
On June 15, the country's lower house approved the draft law, which enables the government to monitor communications without a court order. Reporters without Borders said the government had "submitted a similar bill to parliament last year but withdrew it after complaints from national and international organizations."
Ian Bremmer, president of the political risk consulting firm Eurasia Group, said in a blog entry Tuesday on The Huffington Post that Mugabe approved the law to keep track of his critics. Bremmer said Mugabe, 83, may be on his way out of power in Zimbabwe but is "unlikely to go gracefully."
On its Web site, Amnesty International said Zimbabwe has been engaging in a "campaign of repression aimed at eliminating political opposition and silencing dissent."
EU Bank To Invest In Peruvian Telecom Company
The European Investment Bank said Tuesday it will provide a 10-year loan worth an estimated $82 million to the telecom company Telefonica del Peru to provide telecommunications and high-speed Internet services in Peru.
The loan is expected to go toward the purchase and installation of equipment and systems that can respond to the growing communications market. The goal of the project is to help "transfer technology and know-how, fostering foreign direct investment in Latin America" and promoting economic development, according to the bank.
The project will be located mainly in urban areas. By 2008, Telefonica del Peru, a subsidiary of the Spanish company Telefonica S.A., plans to invest in the upgrade and expansion of different service platforms such as wireless access networks and invest in information and network management systems.
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