Microsoft made a significant concession to the growing influence of the open-source movement among governments with an announcement that it will spearhead an open-source project that will allow interoperability between Microsoft Office and documents created using open formats.

Uncomfortable basing their records on documents formatted exclusively in Microsoft’s Open XML Format, a number of government agencies around the globe have begun beating the drums for the OpenDocument Format (ODF), a standard not tied to a specific vendor.

The call for an open format for government documents has grown much louder in recent months, prompting Microsoft to begin the process of building a bridge between OpenDocument and Microsoft Office.

Microsoft will take the open route to developing and licensing translation software as open-source tools and making them available as free, downloadable add-ins for several older versions of Office, the company said Wednesday.

Microsoft shares rose $0.18 to $23.53 in recent trading.

“On the surface, opening the walled garden and letting the Philistines in does not seem like a great idea for Microsoft,” said Roger Kay, founder of the technology research firm Endpoint Technologies Associates. “But governments are legitimately concerned about tying their documents to a format owned by a company that may not be in existence 100 years from now.”

Greek, Aramaic, or Hebrew?

While governments have led the charge for OpenDocument, the debate is just part of a larger discussion about a transition to software based on open standards as opposed to standards chosen and periodically changed by individual vendors.

“This is just the latest iteration of a debate that has gone on since the advent of the printed document,” said Mr. Kay.

“There has been the question of meaning as important documents have been written in Greek, Aramaic, Latin, or Hebrew. So human history already contains examples of this sort of issue,” he added.

Opening Document Formats

The OpenDocument standard is being developed by a number of organizations and sources, and does not pose significant barriers to implementation, making it an attractive standard for governments.

The OpenDocument format is being considered as a formally recognized independent, international standard, while OpenXML has been proposed for submission as an international standard.

But not everyone believes that translation software is the answer to the coexistence of OpenDocument and Open XML. Peter Gorham, an independent analyst, said that converting documents from one format to another is awkward and offers the worst of both worlds.

Today’s complex documents, which could include graphics, animation, and even video, make the job of conversion so involved that they could defeat the purpose of the conversion, according to Mr. Gorham.

“Microsoft has opened the kimono, but they are not fully embracing the open file format,” he said. “Conversion software does not fully translate documents 100 percent.

“They opened the fortress but it’s an appeasement to governments,” Mr. Gorham added. “It’s not the same thing as opening the file natively in Word in the open file format.”

Contact the writer:CMedford@RedHerring.com