Microsoft has today announced (information here, here) that it will indeed support the Open Document Format (ODF).
Will it be a big deal, or just another feature that will have very little impact on most users?
What seems to be clear from the information currently available is that users of Microsoft Office will need to think about using ODF, rather than using ODF as the standard format. For starters they will need to download an additional component, and even then it’s not clear that they can make ODF the default format.
Even if users could make ODF the default format what would make them choose it as the day-to-day format that they use?
People tend not to make decisions of principle if it adds to their workload, or the workload of others. In the short term ODF capabilities will not be ubiquitous so sending an ODF file to anyone will be to take a risk that you are adding to your workload because you’ll need to re-send the file if the person at the other end can’t read it. If you do need to re-send the file you obviously gives the person receiving the file a problem.
Large organisations can make a principle decision and then enforce that on the people who need to collaborate with them, but they need to be large enough to be dominant. If large organisations do make a principle decision they just give the little guy (who is collaborating) the problem of working in two worlds; the current file format world and the new ODF file format world. Both worlds will exist for some time because I don’t see any sign that all of the large organisations making a principle decision all at the same time, all in the same direction.
What I do see happening is an ODF based ecosystem being built and potential growing in parallel to the current Microsoft Office file format ecosystem. Building an ecosystem doesn’t happen in weeks or months, building an ecosystem takes years.
I’m not convinced that the ODF ecosystem will succeed though, decision based on principle rarely win when it comes to IT. The simplest and easiest things tends to win.
Is this a big deal? It might be, but it isn’t going to be a big deal for a long time.
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Graham Chastney 
My personal view is that this is a big deal. I think historically we have been ok with proprietary file formats because the technology and stanadards weren’t there for us to use. Taking the email analogy internet email wouldn’t be were it was today without standards – I think we are at the point with document standards that we were with email standards in the 80’s. My view is that the documents we produce today, in certain circumstances, have a legacy tomorrow. How can we ensure those documents can be referenced and read (hard copies excepted) if in 20 years time the software isn’t there to support it? This is a concern many governments are now expressing and in many cases have stipulated any system which is not open standards compliant will not be considered – this I feel is the driver behind the MS decision.
So my view, this is not such a big deal today. It is a big deal in the future.
I wonder how much influence Mr Ozzie had in this?
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The longevity issue is one of the potentially compelling benefits, but it’s also one fo the issues. How can you guarantee that a new things will be around for a long time – you can’t.
That’s why document archives have always reverted to the lowest common denominator for documents – and that’s an image. Images, obviously, have their own problems (lack of search) but long term readibility isn’t one of them.
The problem with any interprative mechanism is that the visual representation can never by guaranteed 100%.
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