[Openstds] Update from Standards Edge Beijing; UOF and ODF format merger

[Susy Struble]

>From consortiuminfo.org 

Beijing, April 17, 2007 - The following is a report from a conference in
Beijing, entitled "WTO and IPR's: Issues in Standardization," convened by
the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, China's State Intellectual Property
Office (SIPO) and Sun Microsystems, and supported by a half dozen other
Chinese Ministries, Councils and Commissions.

One of the keynote speakers today was Scott McNealy, the Chairman of both
Sun Microsystems and Sun Federal, Inc., Sun's government sales arm.  In his
address, McNealy characterized the Chinese-developed Uniform Document
Format (UOF) as "one of the three main document formats in existence
today," the other two being Microsoft Office and the OASIS/ISO standard
known as Open Document Format (ODF).  He also called for the merger of UOF
and ODF into a single standard.

What is significant about his statement is not the sentiment, as a
harmonization or merger of the two formats has been a topic of private
conversation and speculation for some time. OASIS, for example, chartered a
working group some months ago to explore with the Chinese how the two
formats might be brought closer.  But until now, ODF proponents have been
shy about placing any pressure on the Chinese to take any such action, not
unlike someone who very much wants to be asked on a date, but is afraid to
scare off the object of affection by being too forward.

The same call for merger was made even more forcefully later in the day,
when Crawford Beveridge, Executive Vice President and Chairman, Sun, EMEA
APAC and the Americas spoke. Perhaps further mention will be made by
another speaker tomorrow.

Why the call for harmonization or merger would be made here is not
difficult to guess.  For Sun's Chairman to travel all the way to China to
deliver the message is clearly good diplomacy. One might wonder, though,
why now? Perhaps the comfort level and discussions between the two sides
relating to a technical détente may have risen to the level where Sun felt
the timing was right.  Or perhaps Sun wants to add one more element of
momentum behind the advance of ODF while OOXML is under review in ISO, if
the Chinese are receptive to the invitation.

Will they be?  Presumably McNealy would not have extended the invitation if
he did not expect it to be welcomed.  Whether, and how, it may be accepted,
however, will have a lot to do with exactly how a reconciliation of the two
formats might be achieved. At one level, ODF and UOF could be harmonized in
such a way that implementations of each could natively (rather than through
plugins) save documents in the other format. And at the highest level, the
specifications for the two formats could actually be merged into one, which
I'm told would be technically possible.   Which approach (if either) is
actually taken may have a lot to do with China's overall standards
strategy, which for the last several years has been oriented towards
developing "home grown" standards in areas where high foreign royalty
payments, or product prices, would otherwise be encountered. These
standards have most notably been in the area of wireless (WAPI), video
(AVS), and 3G cell phones (TD-SCMA), with other standards on the way.

For China to give up its independence with UOF would run counter to this
trend, and would provide a very interesting bellwether indeed regarding
China's future standards strategy.  To provide for the two standards to
coexist in a way (through harmonization) that would add power to each would
make good sense by any strategy.  But to actually merge the standards would
be evidence of a braver and more sophisticated strategy that would be more
focused on achieving the desired end result through international
collaboration, rather than simply through the unilateral exercise of its
independent - and very substantial - domestic market power.

For more, see:
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20070417025728436


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